1git-branch(1) 2============= 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-branch - List, create, or delete branches. 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'git-branch' [-r] 12'git-branch' [-l] [-f] <branchname> [<start-point>] 13'git-branch' (-d | -D) <branchname>... 14 15DESCRIPTION 16----------- 17With no arguments given (or just `-r`) a list of available branches 18will be shown, the current branch will be highlighted with an asterisk. 19 20In its second form, a new branch named <branchname> will be created. 21It will start out with a head equal to the one given as <start-point>. 22If no <start-point> is given, the branch will be created with a head 23equal to that of the currently checked out branch. 24 25With a `-d` or `-D` option, `<branchname>` will be deleted. You may 26specify more than one branch for deletion. If the branch currently 27has a ref log then the ref log will also be deleted. 28 29 30OPTIONS 31------- 32-d:: 33 Delete a branch. The branch must be fully merged. 34 35-D:: 36 Delete a branch irrespective of its index status. 37 38-l:: 39 Create the branch's ref log. This activates recording of 40 all changes to made the branch ref, enabling use of date 41 based sha1 expressions such as "<branchname>@{yesterday}". 42 43-f:: 44 Force the creation of a new branch even if it means deleting 45 a branch that already exists with the same name. 46 47-r:: 48 List only the "remote" branches. 49 50<branchname>:: 51 The name of the branch to create or delete. 52 The new branch name must pass all checks defined by 53 gitlink:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 54 may restrict the characters allowed in a branch name. 55 56<start-point>:: 57 The new branch will be created with a HEAD equal to this. It may 58 be given as a branch name, a commit-id, or a tag. If this option 59 is omitted, the current branch is assumed. 60 61 62 63Examples 64-------- 65 66Start development off of a known tag:: 67+ 68------------ 69$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 70$ cd my2.6 71$ git branch my2.6.14 v2.6.14 <1> 72$ git checkout my2.6.14 73------------ 74+ 75<1> This step and the next one could be combined into a single step with 76"checkout -b my2.6.14 v2.6.14". 77 78Delete unneeded branch:: 79+ 80------------ 81$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/.../git.git my.git 82$ cd my.git 83$ git branch -D todo <1> 84------------ 85+ 86<1> delete todo branch even if the "master" branch does not have all 87commits from todo branch. 88 89 90Notes 91----- 92 93If you are creating a branch that you want to immediately checkout, it's 94easier to use the git checkout command with its `-b` option to create 95a branch and check it out with a single command. 96 97 98Author 99------ 100Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> 101 102Documentation 103-------------- 104Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 105 106GIT 107--- 108Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite 109