When would Git move remote-tracking branches automatically, without 'git fetch'?

Question

The Git documentation (https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Branching-Remote-Branches) says: "Remote-tracking branches are references to the state of remote branches...Git moves them for you whenever you do any network communication"

Under what conditions would the remote-tracking branch move upon network communication if you hadn't used 'git fetch' to pull in anything new from the remote?

Answer 1

Very few Git commands communicate with the remote, in general. Among these, the ones that do update the remote-tracking branches are:

• git clone
• git push (mentioned above)
• git pull (since it runs git fetch)
• git submodule update (fetches the submodules)
• git remote update (a command not often taught these days)

I think that’s all for the main "porcelain" commands.