I started using git sometime back and do not fully understand the intricacies. My basic question here is to find out the difference between a git pull and git pull --rebase , since adding the --rebase option does not seem to do something very different : just does a pull.

Please help me with understanding the difference.

git pull = git fetch + git merge against tracking upstream branch

git pull --rebase = git fetch + git rebase against tracking upstream branch

If you want to know how git merge and git rebase differ, read this.