How to check for changes on remote (origin) Git repository

Question

What are the Git commands to do the following workflow?

Scenario

I cloned from a repository and did some commits of my own to my local reposit

Answer 1

You could git fetch origin to update the remote branch in your repository to point to the latest version. For a diff against the remote:

git diff origin/master

Yes, you can use caret notation as well.

If you want to accept the remote changes:

git merge origin/master