1git-branch(1) 2============= 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-branch - List, create, or delete branches 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'git-branch' [--color | --no-color] [-r | -a] 12 [-v [--abbrev=<length> | --no-abbrev]] 13'git-branch' [--track | --no-track] [-l] [-f] <branchname> [<start-point>] 14'git-branch' (-m | -M) [<oldbranch>] <newbranch> 15'git-branch' (-d | -D) [-r] <branchname>... 16 17DESCRIPTION 18----------- 19With no arguments given a list of existing branches 20will be shown, the current branch will be highlighted with an asterisk. 21Option `-r` causes the remote-tracking branches to be listed, 22and option `-a` shows both. 23 24In its second form, a new branch named <branchname> will be created. 25It will start out with a head equal to the one given as <start-point>. 26If no <start-point> is given, the branch will be created with a head 27equal to that of the currently checked out branch. 28 29Note that this will create the new branch, but it will not switch the 30working tree to it; use "git checkout <newbranch>" to switch to the 31new branch. 32 33When a local branch is started off a remote branch, git can setup the 34branch so that gitlink:git-pull[1] will appropriately merge from that 35remote branch. If this behavior is desired, it is possible to make it 36the default using the global `branch.autosetupmerge` configuration 37flag. Otherwise, it can be chosen per-branch using the `--track` 38and `--no-track` options. 39 40With a '-m' or '-M' option, <oldbranch> will be renamed to <newbranch>. 41If <oldbranch> had a corresponding reflog, it is renamed to match 42<newbranch>, and a reflog entry is created to remember the branch 43renaming. If <newbranch> exists, -M must be used to force the rename 44to happen. 45 46With a `-d` or `-D` option, `<branchname>` will be deleted. You may 47specify more than one branch for deletion. If the branch currently 48has a reflog then the reflog will also be deleted. 49 50Use -r together with -d to delete remote-tracking branches. Note, that it 51only makes sense to delete remote-tracking branches if they no longer exist 52in remote repository or if gitlink:git-fetch[1] was configured not to fetch 53them again. See also 'prune' subcommand of gitlink:git-remote[1] for way to 54clean up all obsolete remote-tracking branches. 55 56 57OPTIONS 58------- 59-d:: 60 Delete a branch. The branch must be fully merged in HEAD. 61 62-D:: 63 Delete a branch irrespective of its merged status. 64 65-l:: 66 Create the branch's reflog. This activates recording of 67 all changes made to the branch ref, enabling use of date 68 based sha1 expressions such as "<branchname>@\{yesterday}". 69 70-f:: 71 Force the creation of a new branch even if it means deleting 72 a branch that already exists with the same name. 73 74-m:: 75 Move/rename a branch and the corresponding reflog. 76 77-M:: 78 Move/rename a branch even if the new branchname already exists. 79 80--color:: 81 Color branches to highlight current, local, and remote branches. 82 83--no-color:: 84 Turn off branch colors, even when the configuration file gives the 85 default to color output. 86 87-r:: 88 List or delete (if used with -d) the remote-tracking branches. 89 90-a:: 91 List both remote-tracking branches and local branches. 92 93-v:: 94 Show sha1 and commit subject line for each head. 95 96--abbrev=<length>:: 97 Alter minimum display length for sha1 in output listing, 98 default value is 7. 99 100--no-abbrev:: 101 Display the full sha1s in output listing rather than abbreviating them. 102 103--track:: 104 Set up configuration so that git-pull will automatically 105 retrieve data from the remote branch. Use this if you always 106 pull from the same remote branch into the new branch, or if you 107 don't want to use "git pull <repository> <refspec>" explicitly. Set the 108 branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable to true if you 109 want git-checkout and git-branch to always behave as if 110 '--track' were given. 111 112--no-track:: 113 When a branch is created off a remote branch, 114 set up configuration so that git-pull will not retrieve data 115 from the remote branch, ignoring the branch.autosetupmerge 116 configuration variable. 117 118<branchname>:: 119 The name of the branch to create or delete. 120 The new branch name must pass all checks defined by 121 gitlink:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 122 may restrict the characters allowed in a branch name. 123 124<start-point>:: 125 The new branch will be created with a HEAD equal to this. It may 126 be given as a branch name, a commit-id, or a tag. If this option 127 is omitted, the current branch is assumed. 128 129<oldbranch>:: 130 The name of an existing branch to rename. 131 132<newbranch>:: 133 The new name for an existing branch. The same restrictions as for 134 <branchname> applies. 135 136 137Examples 138-------- 139 140Start development off of a known tag:: 141+ 142------------ 143$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 144$ cd my2.6 145$ git branch my2.6.14 v2.6.14 <1> 146$ git checkout my2.6.14 147------------ 148+ 149<1> This step and the next one could be combined into a single step with 150"checkout -b my2.6.14 v2.6.14". 151 152Delete unneeded branch:: 153+ 154------------ 155$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/.../git.git my.git 156$ cd my.git 157$ git branch -d -r origin/todo origin/html origin/man <1> 158$ git branch -D test <2> 159------------ 160+ 161<1> Delete remote-tracking branches "todo", "html", "man". Next 'fetch' or 162'pull' will create them again unless you configure them not to. See 163gitlink:git-fetch[1]. 164<2> Delete "test" branch even if the "master" branch (or whichever branch is 165currently checked out) does not have all commits from test branch. 166 167 168Notes 169----- 170 171If you are creating a branch that you want to immediately checkout, it's 172easier to use the git checkout command with its `-b` option to create 173a branch and check it out with a single command. 174 175 176Author 177------ 178Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> 179 180Documentation 181-------------- 182Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 183 184GIT 185--- 186Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite