Check if pull needed in Git

Question

How do I check whether the remote repository has changed and I need to pull?

Now I use this simple script:

git pull --dry-run | grep -q -v \'Already          


        

Answer 1

There are many very feature rich and ingenious answers already. To provide some contrast, I could make do with a very simple line.

# Check return value to see if there are incoming updates.
if ! git diff --quiet remotes/origin/HEAD; then
 # pull or whatever you want to do
fi