diff --git a/builtin/pull.c b/builtin/pull.c
index f35649cc38..647bcb9f3a 100644
--- a/builtin/pull.c
+++ b/builtin/pull.c
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@
 #include "parse-options.h"
 #include "exec_cmd.h"
 #include "run-command.h"
+#include "sha1-array.h"
+#include "remote.h"
 
 static const char * const pull_usage[] = {
 	N_("git pull [options] [<repository> [<refspec>...]]"),
@@ -164,6 +166,111 @@ static void argv_push_force(struct argv_array *arr)
 		argv_array_push(arr, "-f");
 }
 
+/**
+ * Appends merge candidates from FETCH_HEAD that are not marked not-for-merge
+ * into merge_heads.
+ */
+static void get_merge_heads(struct sha1_array *merge_heads)
+{
+	const char *filename = git_path("FETCH_HEAD");
+	FILE *fp;
+	struct strbuf sb = STRBUF_INIT;
+	unsigned char sha1[GIT_SHA1_RAWSZ];
+
+	if (!(fp = fopen(filename, "r")))
+		die_errno(_("could not open '%s' for reading"), filename);
+	while (strbuf_getline(&sb, fp, '\n') != EOF) {
+		if (get_sha1_hex(sb.buf, sha1))
+			continue;  /* invalid line: does not start with SHA1 */
+		if (starts_with(sb.buf + GIT_SHA1_HEXSZ, "\tnot-for-merge\t"))
+			continue;  /* ref is not-for-merge */
+		sha1_array_append(merge_heads, sha1);
+	}
+	fclose(fp);
+	strbuf_release(&sb);
+}
+
+/**
+ * Used by die_no_merge_candidates() as a for_each_remote() callback to
+ * retrieve the name of the remote if the repository only has one remote.
+ */
+static int get_only_remote(struct remote *remote, void *cb_data)
+{
+	const char **remote_name = cb_data;
+
+	if (*remote_name)
+		return -1;
+
+	*remote_name = remote->name;
+	return 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Dies with the appropriate reason for why there are no merge candidates:
+ *
+ * 1. We fetched from a specific remote, and a refspec was given, but it ended
+ *    up not fetching anything. This is usually because the user provided a
+ *    wildcard refspec which had no matches on the remote end.
+ *
+ * 2. We fetched from a non-default remote, but didn't specify a branch to
+ *    merge. We can't use the configured one because it applies to the default
+ *    remote, thus the user must specify the branches to merge.
+ *
+ * 3. We fetched from the branch's or repo's default remote, but:
+ *
+ *    a. We are not on a branch, so there will never be a configured branch to
+ *       merge with.
+ *
+ *    b. We are on a branch, but there is no configured branch to merge with.
+ *
+ * 4. We fetched from the branch's or repo's default remote, but the configured
+ *    branch to merge didn't get fetched. (Either it doesn't exist, or wasn't
+ *    part of the configured fetch refspec.)
+ */
+static void NORETURN die_no_merge_candidates(const char *repo, const char **refspecs)
+{
+	struct branch *curr_branch = branch_get("HEAD");
+	const char *remote = curr_branch ? curr_branch->remote_name : NULL;
+
+	if (*refspecs) {
+		fprintf_ln(stderr, _("There are no candidates for merging among the refs that you just fetched."));
+		fprintf_ln(stderr, _("Generally this means that you provided a wildcard refspec which had no\n"
+					"matches on the remote end."));
+	} else if (repo && curr_branch && (!remote || strcmp(repo, remote))) {
+		fprintf_ln(stderr, _("You asked to pull from the remote '%s', but did not specify\n"
+			"a branch. Because this is not the default configured remote\n"
+			"for your current branch, you must specify a branch on the command line."),
+			repo);
+	} else if (!curr_branch) {
+		fprintf_ln(stderr, _("You are not currently on a branch."));
+		fprintf_ln(stderr, _("Please specify which branch you want to merge with."));
+		fprintf_ln(stderr, _("See git-pull(1) for details."));
+		fprintf(stderr, "\n");
+		fprintf_ln(stderr, "    git pull <remote> <branch>");
+		fprintf(stderr, "\n");
+	} else if (!curr_branch->merge_nr) {
+		const char *remote_name = NULL;
+
+		if (for_each_remote(get_only_remote, &remote_name) || !remote_name)
+			remote_name = "<remote>";
+
+		fprintf_ln(stderr, _("There is no tracking information for the current branch."));
+		fprintf_ln(stderr, _("Please specify which branch you want to merge with."));
+		fprintf_ln(stderr, _("See git-pull(1) for details."));
+		fprintf(stderr, "\n");
+		fprintf_ln(stderr, "    git pull <remote> <branch>");
+		fprintf(stderr, "\n");
+		fprintf_ln(stderr, _("If you wish to set tracking information for this branch you can do so with:\n"
+				"\n"
+				"    git branch --set-upstream-to=%s/<branch> %s\n"),
+				remote_name, curr_branch->name);
+	} else
+		fprintf_ln(stderr, _("Your configuration specifies to merge with the ref '%s'\n"
+			"from the remote, but no such ref was fetched."),
+			*curr_branch->merge_name);
+	exit(1);
+}
+
 /**
  * Parses argv into [<repo> [<refspecs>...]], returning their values in `repo`
  * as a string and `refspecs` as a null-terminated array of strings. If `repo`
@@ -277,6 +384,7 @@ static int run_merge(void)
 int cmd_pull(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 {
 	const char *repo, **refspecs;
+	struct sha1_array merge_heads = SHA1_ARRAY_INIT;
 
 	if (!getenv("_GIT_USE_BUILTIN_PULL")) {
 		const char *path = mkpath("%s/git-pull", git_exec_path());
@@ -295,5 +403,10 @@ int cmd_pull(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	if (opt_dry_run)
 		return 0;
 
+	get_merge_heads(&merge_heads);
+
+	if (!merge_heads.nr)
+		die_no_merge_candidates(repo, refspecs);
+
 	return run_merge();
 }