Question

Is there a config way to set this up without having to specify which branch?

Answer 1

Git already only pulls the current branch. If you have branch set up as a tracking branch, you do not need to specify the remote branch. git branch --set-upstream-to=reponame/remotebranch localbranch will set up the tracking relationship. You then issue git pull [--rebase] and only that branch will be updated.

Of course, all remote tracking branches and all refs for the remote will be updated, but only your local tracking branch will be modified.

Useful Bash alias to cut down on typing of this common operation:

# Add an alias to pulling latest git changes into your same branch
alias pullhead='git pull origin $(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)'

Powershell function that does the same:

Function pullhead {
    $cur_head="$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)"
    & git pull origin ${cur_head}
}