Git pull just one commit

Assuming your remote is origin and your branch is master,

git fetch && git merge $(git rev-list master..origin/master | tail -n1)

This will:

1. Run git fetch to update origin/master
2. Get the list of commit hashes (git rev-list) from after master up to origin/master, and get the last line (tail), i.e., the first new commit
3. Pass the result of the last step to git merge

git pull is essentially a shorthand for git fetch (download remote commits into remote-tracking branches) and then git merge (merge your HEAD, i.e. the current commit, with the ones you just downloaded).

You can get the flexibility you expect by decoupling both steps:

• First, run git fetch, then inspect the history you just downloaded (if you work on the master branch, git fetch should have downloaded remote commits in branch origin/master which you can inspect with git log origin/master).

• Then, merge the commit you want using git merge <commit>. Note: git merge will get all the changes in <commit> and its ancestry, so this works if <commit> is the oldest non-merged commit. If you do not have any unpushed commits, this will "fast-forward", i.e. it won't create a new commit but just advance HEAD to this commit. If you're not happy with git merge, you have other options like git rebase, git cherry-pick, ...