Why doesn't my git log/history update automatically?

Question

Hi,

I am running Sourcetree v2.3.1.0 on Windows 7.

I have this option configured in my settings:

I thought this setting would cause my git log/history graph to update automatically and update the log with the latest commits that have been pushed to my remote repo. Instead, I find I have to press F5 or hit 'Fetch' for the log to show the latest commits.

Is there a bug here? Or does this setting do something else that I'm not aware of? If it is the latter, what is it actually doing?

jyo · Answer

@Joshua WilliamsGot it-- yeah. We won't auto-fetch for you. However, I thought this would be rather neat: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10464039/git-automatic-fetching-from-remote-repositories

You could possibly set an alias to fetch the changes and check the status. Note: This won't check for conflicts!

Joshua Williams · Answer

Thanks @jyo - I understand that pulling commits will modify my local source, but I thought fetch didn't modify my local source, it only fetched the latest commits into my local git repository somewhere in my .git folder (which I could then choose to pull into my source).

I was expecting this setting to auto-fetch for me.

jyo · Answer

There is no bug here -- Git doesn't automatically pull changes for you. That setting will alert you if there are changes on the server (so you can fetch/pull)

Due to the fact that changes can conflict, we aren't going to automatically pull them for you and possibly cause a conflict.