Question: I have a remote `origin/master` and a remote branch `remote_branch`.
I also have local `master` and a local branch `local_branch`. When I try to pull the local `master` into the `local_branch` with `git pull master local_branch` I get this. 

```
fatal: 'master' does not appear to be a git repository
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.
Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

```

However, when I do `git branch` I see this:

```
* loca_branch
  master

```

Why can't I pull from my local `master`?

Answer: 
merge changes from local\_branch **TO** master

```
git checkout master
git merge local_branch

```

merge changes from master **TO** local\_branch

```
git checkout local_branch
git merge master

```

Pull is when you have an 'origin' repo :)
As the error message says, `master` is not a repository it knows of. This is because with `git pull master local_branch` you say "Fetch the branch `local_branch` from remote repository `master` and merge it into my currently checked-out branch".

But that is not what you are after. You want to say "Merge my local branch `master` into my local branch `local_branch`, checking it out if it is not already" and that would be `git checkout local_branch && git merge master`