Can “git pull --all” update all my local branches?

Question

I often have at least 3 remote branches: master, staging and production. I have 3 local branches that track those remote branches.

Updating all my local branches is

Answer 1

A script I wrote for my GitBash. Accomplishes the following:

• By default pulls from origin for all branches that are setup to track origin, allows you to specify a different remote if desired.
• If your current branch is in a dirty state then it stashes your changes and will attempt to restore these changes at the end.
• For each local branch that is set up to track a remote branch will:
  • git checkout branch
  • git pull origin
• Finally, will return you to your original branch and restore state.

** I use this but have not tested thoroughly, use at own risk. See an example of this script in a .bash_alias file here.

    # Do a pull on all branches that are tracking a remote branches, will from origin by default.
    # If current branch is dirty, will stash changes and reply after pull.
    # Usage: pullall [remoteName]
    alias pullall=pullAll
    function pullAll (){
     # if -h then show help
     if [[ $1 == '-h' ]]
    then
      echo "Description: Pulls new changes from upstream on all branches that are tracking remotes."
      echo 
      echo "Usage: "
      echo "- Default: pullall"
      echo "- Specify upstream to pull from: pullall [upstreamName]"
      echo "- Help: pull-all -h"
    else

     # default remote to origin
     remote="origin"
     if [ $1 != "" ]
     then
       remote=$1
     fi

     # list all branches that are tracking remote
     # git branch -vv : list branches with their upstreams
     # grep origin : keep only items that have upstream of origin
     # sed "s/^.."... : remove leading *
     # sed "s/^"..... : remove leading white spaces
     # cut -d" "..... : cut on spaces, take first item
     # cut -d splits on space, -f1 grabs first item
     branches=($(git branch -vv | grep $remote | sed "s/^[ *]*//" | sed "s/^[ /t]*//" | cut -d" " -f1))

     # get starting branch name
     startingBranch=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)

     # get starting stash size
     startingStashSize=$(git stash list | wc -l)

     echo "Saving starting branch state: $startingBranch"
     git stash

     # get the new stash size
     newStashSize=$(git stash list | wc -l)

     # for each branch in the array of remote tracking branches
     for branch in ${branches[*]}
     do
       echo "Switching to $branch"
       git checkout $branch

       echo "Pulling $remote"
       git pull $remote

     done

     echo "Switching back to $startingBranch"
     git checkout $startingBranch

     # compare before and after stash size to see if anything was stashed
     if [ "$startingStashSize" -lt "$newStashSize" ]
     then
       echo "Restoring branch state"
       git stash pop
     fi
    fi
    }