Basil L. Contovounesios writes:

[...]
>
> Am I the only one who prefers doing separate 'git fetch' and 'git
> merge/rebase' operations, and never uses 'git pull'? :)
>
> This way I get to see exactly what's changed upstream, whether it
> conflicts with my local changes, decide whether I want/need to
> merge/rebase, etc. etc.

Not much substance to add, but same here.  I generally try to start at
the tip of the branch (i.e. its latest commit) I plan to commit to, in
order to avoid the need for rebasing or merging whenever possible.  Once
I'm done writing, I fetch and review upstream changes if any, carefully
rebase my own commit(s) on top of them, and push.  It's worked out very
well for my (admittedly mostly small-scoped) changes to various git
repositories thus far.