The dangers of "git pull" - how to avoid in Git Extensions?

[OldGrantonian]

I'm new to everything Git. I've tried SourceTree and TortoiseGit. IMHO, Git Extensions is superior to any of these. (Maybe that just means that it's easier for a git like myself.)

I'm almost on the point of setting up my own 1-man Git repo that I'll use at work. (The others use the non-Git TFS, so there's no advice available.)

AFAIK, I can manage my own local repository and the remote (maybe BitBucket) using fairly simple commands. This means avoiding advanced commands such as "rebase" until I understand what I'm doing.

I'm aware of the dangers of "pull", so I plan to use "fetch" followed by "merge". Here's a statement from the GE User Manual, section 8.2, "Pull changes":

If you just fetch the commits from the remote repository and you already committed some changes to 
your local repository, the commits will be in a different branch. In the pull dialog this is illustrated in the 
image on the left. This can be useful when you want to review the changes before you want to merge 
them with your own changes. 

My question is:  how do I "review the changes"?  I'm sure that I've opened every menu in GE, but I can't see anything that would allow me to "review changes".

If someone can advise me how to to that, there would still be a follow-up question.  What am I supposed to be looking for?  In other words, what could I see that would make me say "I don't want to pull this"?

 

[Oliver Friedrich]

You can review the changes made in the remote repository by clicking on a commit in the remote branch and in the bottom pane opening the diff view. That's it I would say.

On a side note, I'm not so sure what the dangers of pull are. I've been using git for a few years now and don't feel any danger there. What's the danger? As long as you don't push you can always go back, too.

--
Oliver Friedrich
My professional blog: shades-of-orange.com

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[OldGrantonian]

>>  You can review the changes made in the remote repository by clicking on a commit in the remote branch and in the bottom pane opening the diff view.

Simple and logical.

>>  On a side note, I'm not so sure what the dangers of pull are.

Here's one of the first links I saw:  "'git pull' is evil!"

https://coderwall.com/p/jgn6-q

And another:  "In what cases could `git pull` be harmful?"

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15316601/in-what-cases-could-git-pull-be-harmful

[Tod Thomson]

use git pull --rebase (or even delete your local master) and I suspect you will begin on the path to git zen you're looking for ;)

[OldGrantonian]

>>  use git pull --rebase

I Googled that and found 99% agreement. But there's always some git that spoils the party:

https://coderwall.com/p/jiswdq

>> or even delete your local master

As a 1-man automated web tester, no-one else uses my stuff. I use "master" for the latest "working code". 

Test code needs constant refactoring, abstraction, and parameterization, otherwise many tests can fail if the developer changes a tiny bit of text on the UI. 

Git is ideal for test refactoring, because I can try various experiments on various branches. Eventually, the latest "good idea" is merged into the master.

I'm not sure how I would use Git without a master. Surely I need one branch with "working code". The remote repo has a master with working code - but how do I pull that code to run a suite of tests on instant demand?

As I said in my OP, all this is new to me  :)