Question

While working in a branch I’ll have a few files that I’m changing. One of my colleagues tells me that he’s pushed a change that I should pull to fix an immediate issue. If I don’t commit my changes, git won’t let me pull. Even though none of my files I have modified are being updated.

I’m wondering why this is the case and if possible, is there a way to avoid this?

Answer 1

git pull is essentially a fetch followed by a merge. Merges usually require that the working directory is in a clean state; they do that for your safety:

Warning: Running git merge with uncommitted changes is discouraged: while possible, it leaves you in a state that is hard to back out of in the case of a conflict. (source)

And:

If any of the remote changes overlap with local uncommitted changes, the merge will be automatically cancelled and the work tree untouched. It is generally best to get any local changes in working order before pulling or stash them away with git-stash. (source)

I believe that the check in a pure git merge is actually more forgiving than in a git pull, so you might want to try fetching first and then merging manually. But it’s always a better idea to stash things away first.