Do I have to commit my changes before pulling in Git?

Question

It looks like I'm missing basic understanding of git pull and git commit, let's say I'm working on branch and it was updated by other developer while I was doing my job locally. Should I commit changes before issuing git pull or should I do git pull and then do git commit?

Answer 1

You can do a commit anytime you want - all your commits are local.

It's only when you need to push to the server that you need to have its latest copy. So it's a good idea that you always pull from the remote repository before you push your changes.

So, I think what you mean is "Should I push changes before issuing git pull or should I do git pull and then do git push". You should ideally pull before you push which adheres to the basic idea of adding code to the most recent copy of the public repository.

You might be notified of some merge conflicts obtained by merging the public repository, which you need to resolve before you can finally push your changes.

Answer 2

If you have uncommitted changes to existing files in your branch git won't let you pull. You can either commit what you have, or use the --autostash flag when pulling and then you'll be able to pull.