I basically never use git pull. I use git fetch and then I check (using git diff, git log or in confusing cases gitk) what I want to do. That could be merge (fa

I basically never use git pull. I use git fetch and then I check (using git diff, git log or in confusing cases gitk) what I want to do. That could be merge (fast forward), rebase, ignore or either branch because the other one is just better. Of course often pull might do what you want, but when it doesn't people start to complain. So better avoiding surprises from the beginning.