SmartGit pull not acting like expected

Question

I forked a repository on GitHub.

I then cloned my fork into a folder on my local development enviroment through SmartGit. Additionally I added the original repository as a remote.

Now, the original repository has added and changed some files. I'd like to retrieve these so that I'm up to date, before continuing with developing.

I the push the Pull button in SmartGit and select the original repo i the dialog. SmartGit returns this to me:

remote: Counting objects: 24, done.
remote: Total 13 (delta 7), reused 12 (delta 6)
From github.com:Original/repo
 * [new branch]      master     -> lm/master

But, the added files and changes are not added to my local repository. Doing this manually with Git Bash - git pull original master everything works like expected.

Why is it SmartGit doesn't pull like I expect?

Answer 1

On Pull, SmartGit will perform a "git fetch" and after that merge resp. rebase the tracked branch. In your case, master tracks origin/master, not lm/master. You have following choices now, always assuming you are on master:

(1) Configure master to track lm/master instead of origin/master: invoke Branch|Branch Manager, select master, invoke Reset Tracked Branch from the context menu, then add lm/master to the selection and invoke Set Tracked Branch. Now, it's lm/master which will be merged (or rebased) on every Pull.

(2) Manually merge lm/master: invoke Branch|Merge and select lm/master.

(3) Manually rebase onto lm/master: invoke Branch|Rebase, select HEAD to selected commits and on the graph-page, select lm/master.

Answer 2

What I ended up doing in SmartGit was:

• Remote > Add (as you did). I called mine upstream.
• In the branches panel Right click upstream > fetch more.. and select the branches. (Typically master)
• In the branches panel Double click upstream > master. This will ask you to create a 2nd branch (usually master-2). I also called this upstream. So I have a remote repo called upstream and local branch called upstream that tracks upstream/master.
• In the branches panel Double click Local Branches > Master to get you back to your master branch.

At this point I would presume you only just forked the project a few moments ago, so this next step would not be very useful, but if there are a few extra commits at a later stage you will need to do this.

• Remote > Pull and select upstream. If you press the little down arrow, you will see you can ONLY do "Neither merge nor rebase". This is good.
• Click fetch This will allow you to see all the log and what has changed.
• In the branch panel Right click Local Branches > upstream > Merge.
• Fast-Forward if you believe you can. (My preferred way).
• or Create Merge-Commit.

From this point on, You would only have to do is the last 5 steps. The first steps were just setup.

Answer 3

You would see the new files if the upstream branch of your current local branch was "lm/master".
But if you are on master, its upstream branch is certainly by default "origin/master" (ie the master of your fork)

If you want to merge the files from the original repo, complete your command with a

git merge lm/master

Or, in SmartGit, merge from lm/master to your current branch.