What is the difference between doing (after mkdir repo and cd repo):
git init git remote add origin git://github.com/cmcculloh/repo.git git fetch --all git pull origin master and
git clone git://github.com/cmcculloh/repo.git I mean, obviously one is shorter, but other than that are they basically doing the same thing?
They're basically the same, except clone will setup additional remote tracking branches, not just master. Check out the man page:
Clones a repository into a newly created directory, creates remote-tracking branches for each branch in the cloned repository (visible using git branch -r), and creates and checks out an initial branch that is forked from the cloned repository's currently active branch.
git clone is how you get a local copy of an existing repository to work on. It's usually only used once for a given repository, unless you want to have multiple working copies of it around. (Or want to get a clean copy after messing up your local one...)
git pull (or git fetch + git merge) is how you update that local copy with new commits from the remote repository. If you are collaborating with others, it is a command that you will run frequently.
As your first example shows, it is possible to emulate git clone with an assortment of other git commands, but it's not really the case that git pull is doing "basically the same thing" as git clone (or vice-versa).
In laymen language we can say:
Git clone means you are making a copy of the repository in your system. Git fork means you are copying the repository to your Github account. Git pull means you are fetching the last modified repository. Git push means you are returning the repository after modifying it.
In Layman's term Git clone is downloading and Git pull is refreshing.
Hmm, what's missing to see the remote branch "4.2" when I pull, as I do when I clone? Something's clearly not identical.
tmp$ mkdir some_repo tmp$ cd some_repo some_repo$ git init Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/some_repo/.git/ some_repo$ git pull https://github.ourplace.net/babelfish/some_repo.git : From https://github.ourplace.net/babelfish/some_repo * branch HEAD -> FETCH_HEAD some_repo$ git branch * master vs
tmp$ rm -rf some_repo tmp$ git clone https://github.ourplace.net/babelfish/some_repo.git Cloning into 'some_repo'... : Checking connectivity... done. tmp$ cd some_repo some_repo$ git branch * 4.2 While the git fetch command will fetch down all the changes on the server that you don’t have yet, it will not modify your working directory at all. It will simply get the data for you and let you merge it yourself. However, there is a command called git pull which is essentially a git fetch immediately followed by a git merge in most cases.
https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Branching-Remote-Branches#Pulling
clone: copying the remote server repository to your local machine. pull: get new changes other have added to your local machine.. This is the difference. Clone is generally used to get remote repo copy.. pull is used to view other team mates added code, if you are working in teams.