I think I have it now: Both git fetch and ordinary git push update refs/remotes from refs/heads but they don't change anything under refs/heads at all. Ordina

I think I have it now: Both git fetch and ordinary git push update refs/remotes from refs/heads but they don't change anything under refs/heads at all. Ordinary git pull will update refs/heads/<currentbranch> because by default it merges/rebases the current branch after fetching, but that's not always desirable when branch switching is expensive. Pushing locally updates refs/heads/<somebranch> from refs/remotes/<somebranch> without switching to that branch. Now I also understand @myme's sentence "In fact, in order to properly “push to the local repository” it’s necessary to invoke a git fetch first to ensure that the remote tracking branches are updated." Thanks to @myme and other responders in this thread!