git question: Why does git fetch not provide a fully updated local repo of Emacs?

Question

More than a year ago I cloned Emacs:

git clone git://git.savannah.gnu.org/emacs.git

and since always kept it on date with

git fetch git://git.savannah.gnu.org/emacs.git

Well, at least I thought that git fetch would provide a fully updated local repo.

Now I noticed that the README still dates December 12th 2021. This is not a question of the branch:

git checkout master
Bereits auf 'master'
Ihr Branch ist auf demselben Stand wie 'origin/master'.

Translation: you branch already is at master.

I cloned the git repo from above for a second time to a different folder and voilá, README is from the date I cloned it.

That said, my self compiled Emacs from the first, older local repo says it is version 29.0.50, while the newer one is 30.0.50.

I expected to get the newest version with git fetch. If that's not true, how do you update your emacs-repo?

Answer 1

This is purely a question about Git; it has nothing to do with Emacs for all that it involves the Emacs repository.

The short answer is that “git fetch” downloads new commits from whatever remotes you have configured, but it doesn’t update your working directory. A “git pull” would do that.