update

Fetch upstream, rebase your integration branch and all its feature branches onto it, and update submodules. With a branch name, take that branch’s remote version first.

Alias: up

Usage

git loom update [<branch>] [-y]

Arguments

Options

What It Does

1. Fetches the tracked remote, tags included. In a fork setup, the remote you push to is fetched too, and so is a named <branch>’s remote branch when it lives on yet another remote.
2. Takes the remote version of <branch>, when one is named: its commits are replaced by those of the branch it tracks, whatever the local branch had. The message names the tip it had, so you can bring it back.
3. Drops commits that already landed upstream, merged or cherry-picked.
4. Rebases every feature branch onto the new upstream, keeping the integration layout. Uncommitted changes are kept, staged ones staged.
5. Updates submodules, if any.
6. Offers to remove local branches that were fully merged upstream, or whose remote branch was deleted. Set loom.pruneGoneBranches to always remove them without asking.

An integration branch holding an octopus merge (several branches merged at once) is still updated, by git’s own rebase, with a warning: branches already merged upstream are not offered for removal, and a named branch is refused.

Examples

git loom update
# ✓ Fetched latest changes
# ✓ Rebased onto upstream
# ✓ Updated branch `integration` with `origin/main` (abc1234 Latest commit)
#   › `feature-x`: fully merged upstream
#   › `feature-y`: upstream gone
# ? Remove 2 local branches? [y/N] y
# ✓ Removed branch `feature-x` (was 4f825d2)
# ✓ Removed branch `feature-y` (was 711d082)

A removed branch’s message gives its last commit, so you can bring it back with git branch <name> <commit>. A branch that can’t be deleted, such as one checked out in another worktree, is skipped with a warning.

A branch you pushed and then advanced elsewhere, from another machine, a colleague’s push or an update to your pull request, is refreshed by naming it:

git loom update feature-x
# ✓ Fetched latest changes
# ✓ Rebased onto upstream
# ✓ Updated branch `integration` with `origin/main` (abc1234 Latest commit)
# ✓ Updated branch `feature-x` with `origin/feature-x` (9c1e2f3 Second new commit, was 4f825d2)

Nothing is compared: commits the local branch had and the remote lacks go with the update, and was 4f825d2 is the way back: git loom unmerge feature-x, git branch -f feature-x 4f825d2, then git loom merge feature-x. A branch sharing commits with another one (stacked, or at the same tip), one whose remote holds a merge commit, one that is not woven, and one without a remote branch are refused before anything is rewritten. A branch whose remote version landed upstream whole is offered for removal instead.

Conflicts

If the rebase conflicts, the update pauses:

git loom update
# ✓ Fetched latest changes
# ! Conflicts detected — resolve them with git, then run:
#   › loom continue   to complete the update
#   › loom abort      to cancel and restore original state

git add <resolved-files> && git loom continue
# ✓ Updated branch `integration` with `origin/main` (abc1234 Latest commit)

See continue and abort.

Prerequisites

• On a branch with an upstream (see init)