Git: force a pull to overwrite local changes

Question

I would like my local branch to be identical to the remote one. When I pull from the remote one, I'm getting conflicts, and in this case I would like not to resolve them and just get the latest version from the remote branch.

To hard pull I use in my local branch:

git reset -- hard

git pull

Nevertheless, when pulling I'm getting the error:

Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.

Why? How can I pull the remote branch with overwriting? I thought of a workaround to just delete my local branch and create a new one and then pull, but is there a better way?

https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=%5Bgit%5D+pull+overwrite+local+changes — phd, May 29 '20 at 14:46

score 17 · Accepted Answer · answered May 29 '20 at 06:45

17

Try doing a git fetch to bring the (local) remote tracking branch up to date with the remote version, then hard reset your local branch to that:

# from local
git fetch origin
git reset --hard origin/local

As to why you are still getting merge conflicts even after a hard reset, this could be explained by a few things. The general explanation would be that your local branch has commits which are not present in the remote version. In that case, Git cannot simply fast-forward your local branch, and must resort to doing a merge instead, which can lead to conflicts.

answered May 29 '20 at 06:45

Tim Biegeleisen

502,043
27
286
360

1

Thank you very much, while trying to understand, do you mean that from my local branch I should do "git reset --hard local" ? – sir-haver May 29 '20 at 06:49
1

I tried following your steps with "get reset --hard" in the end, and I'm still getting the same merging conflicts in the files – sir-haver May 29 '20 at 06:55
Are you sure you followed my _exact_ steps? There should be zero conflicts appearing when doing a hard reset. – Tim Biegeleisen May 29 '20 at 07:02
I'm doing "git fetch origin", then "git reset --hard", and then when pulling I get the merging conflicts – sir-haver May 29 '20 at 07:09
Not what my answer says, at all. You need to hard reset _to the tracking branch for your local branch_. – Tim Biegeleisen May 29 '20 at 07:09
4

Oh I see now, so in the last command I should type "git reset --hard origin/development" if my local branch is development? Thanks I'm still new to git – sir-haver May 29 '20 at 07:14
Yes, that's right, assuming your local branch is called `development`. – Tim Biegeleisen May 29 '20 at 07:14

Git: force a pull to overwrite local changes

1 Answers1