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:
- Clone: Get a working copy of the remote repository.
- Pull: I am working on this, please get me the new changes that may be updated by others.
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.
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.
git clone is used for just downloading exactly what is currently working on the remote server repository and saving it in your machine's folder where that project is placed. Mostly it is used only when we are going to upload the project for the first time. After that pull is the better option.
git pull is basically a (clone(download) + merge) operation and mostly used when you are working as teamwork. In other words, when you want the recent changes in that project, you can pull.
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.
Read more: https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Branching-Remote-Branches#Pulling
git clone URL ---> Complete project or repository will be downloaded as a seperate directory. and not just the changes git pull URL ---> fetch + merge --> It will only fetch the changes that have been done and not the entire project
来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3620633/what-is-the-difference-between-pull-and-clone-in-git