Difference between different refspecs in a git-pull call

Question

Whats the difference between using the following git commands

git pull origin master
git pull origin master:master

Some ob

Answer 1

A git pull inherently performs two operations: First, a git fetch, followed by git merge.

With git pull origin master, the master branch of your origin remote will be fetched (retrieved), then merged into your current, checked-out branch.

By defining two branch names, you are specifying a refspec of which branch is merged into which.

The generalized example reads as follows: "Retrieve the source branch from the specified remote, merge it with the destination branch.

git pull :