Git: How to check if a local repo is up to date?

I would like to know if my local repo is up to date (and if not, ideally, I would like to see the changes).

How could I check this without doing git fetch or git pull ?

Try git fetch --dry-run The manual (git help fetch) says:

--dry-run
Show what would be done, without making any changes.

First use git remote update, to bring your remote refs up to date. Then you can do one of several things, such as:

1. git status -uno will tell you whether the branch you are tracking is ahead, behind or has diverged. If it says nothing, the local and remote are the same. Sample result:

> On branch DEV > > Your branch is behind 'origin/DEV' by 7 commits, and can be fast-forwarded. > > (use "git pull" to update your local branch)

2. git show-branch *master will show you the commits in all of the branches whose names end in 'master' (eg master and origin/master).

If you use -v with git remote update (git remote -v update) you can see which branches got updated, so you don't really need any further commands.

git remote show origin

Result:

HEAD branch: master
  Remote branch:
    master tracked
  Local branch configured for 'git pull':
    master merges with remote master
  Local ref configured for 'git push':
    master pushes to master (local out of date) <-------

you can use git remote update; git status -uno to check if your local branch is up-to-date with the origin one.

Not really - but I don't see how git fetch would hurt as it won't change any of your local branches.

You'll need to issue two commands:

1. git fetch origin
2. git status

You must run git fetch before you can compare your local repository against the files on your remote server.

This command only updates your remote tracking branches and will not affect your worktree until you call git merge or git pull.

To see the difference between your local branch and your remote tracking branch once you've fetched you can use git diff or git cherry as explained here.

Another alternative is to view the status of the remote branch using git show-branch remote/branch to use it as a comparison you could see git show-branch *branch to see the branch in all remotes as well as your repository! check out this answer for more https://stackoverflow.com/a/3278427/2711378

If you use

git fetch --dry-run -v <link/to/remote/git/repo>

you'll get feedback about whether it is up-to-date. So basically, you just need to add the "verbose" option to the answer given before.

git fetch origin
git status

you'll see result like

> Your branch is behind 'origin/master' by 9 commits

to update to remote changes

git pull
 

This is impossible without using git fetch or git pull. How can you know whether or not the repository is "up-to-date" without going to the remote repository to see what "up-to-date" even means?

git remote show origin


Enter passphrase for key ....ssh/id_rsa:
* remote origin
  Fetch URL: git@github.com:mamaque/systems.git
  Push  URL: git@github.com:mamaque/systems.git 

  HEAD branch: main
  Remote branch:
    main tracked
   Local ref configured for 'git push':

main pushes to main (up-to-date) Both are up to date
main pushes to main (fast-forwardable) Remote can be updated with Local
main pushes to main (local out of date) Local can be update with Remote