1git-checkout(1) 2=============== 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-checkout - Switch branches or restore working tree files 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [<branch>] 12'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] --detach [<branch>] 13'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [--detach] <commit> 14'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [[-b|-B|--orphan] <new_branch>] [<start_point>] 15'git checkout' [-f|--ours|--theirs|-m|--conflict=<style>] [<tree-ish>] [--] <paths>... 16'git checkout' [-p|--patch] [<tree-ish>] [--] [<paths>...] 17 18DESCRIPTION 19----------- 20Updates files in the working tree to match the version in the index 21or the specified tree. If no paths are given, 'git checkout' will 22also update `HEAD` to set the specified branch as the current 23branch. 24 25'git checkout' <branch>:: 26 To prepare for working on <branch>, switch to it by updating 27 the index and the files in the working tree, and by pointing 28 HEAD at the branch. Local modifications to the files in the 29 working tree are kept, so that they can be committed to the 30 <branch>. 31+ 32If <branch> is not found but there does exist a tracking branch in 33exactly one remote (call it <remote>) with a matching name, treat as 34equivalent to 35+ 36------------ 37$ git checkout -b <branch> --track <remote>/<branch> 38------------ 39+ 40You could omit <branch>, in which case the command degenerates to 41"check out the current branch", which is a glorified no-op with a 42rather expensive side-effects to show only the tracking information, 43if exists, for the current branch. 44 45'git checkout' -b|-B <new_branch> [<start point>]:: 46 47 Specifying `-b` causes a new branch to be created as if 48 linkgit:git-branch[1] were called and then checked out. In 49 this case you can use the `--track` or `--no-track` options, 50 which will be passed to 'git branch'. As a convenience, 51 `--track` without `-b` implies branch creation; see the 52 description of `--track` below. 53+ 54If `-B` is given, <new_branch> is created if it doesn't exist; otherwise, it 55is reset. This is the transactional equivalent of 56+ 57------------ 58$ git branch -f <branch> [<start point>] 59$ git checkout <branch> 60------------ 61+ 62that is to say, the branch is not reset/created unless "git checkout" is 63successful. 64 65'git checkout' --detach [<branch>]:: 66'git checkout' [--detach] <commit>:: 67 68 Prepare to work on top of <commit>, by detaching HEAD at it 69 (see "DETACHED HEAD" section), and updating the index and the 70 files in the working tree. Local modifications to the files 71 in the working tree are kept, so that the resulting working 72 tree will be the state recorded in the commit plus the local 73 modifications. 74+ 75When the <commit> argument is a branch name, the `--detach` option can 76be used to detach HEAD at the tip of the branch (`git checkout 77<branch>` would check out that branch without detaching HEAD). 78+ 79Omitting <branch> detaches HEAD at the tip of the current branch. 80 81'git checkout' [-p|--patch] [<tree-ish>] [--] <pathspec>...:: 82 83 When <paths> or `--patch` are given, 'git checkout' does *not* 84 switch branches. It updates the named paths in the working tree 85 from the index file or from a named <tree-ish> (most often a 86 commit). In this case, the `-b` and `--track` options are 87 meaningless and giving either of them results in an error. The 88 <tree-ish> argument can be used to specify a specific tree-ish 89 (i.e. commit, tag or tree) to update the index for the given 90 paths before updating the working tree. 91+ 92'git checkout' with <paths> or `--patch` is used to restore modified or 93deleted paths to their original contents from the index or replace paths 94with the contents from a named <tree-ish> (most often a commit-ish). 95+ 96The index may contain unmerged entries because of a previous failed merge. 97By default, if you try to check out such an entry from the index, the 98checkout operation will fail and nothing will be checked out. 99Using `-f` will ignore these unmerged entries. The contents from a 100specific side of the merge can be checked out of the index by 101using `--ours` or `--theirs`. With `-m`, changes made to the working tree 102file can be discarded to re-create the original conflicted merge result. 103 104OPTIONS 105------- 106-q:: 107--quiet:: 108 Quiet, suppress feedback messages. 109 110--[no-]progress:: 111 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream 112 by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless `--quiet` 113 is specified. This flag enables progress reporting even if not 114 attached to a terminal, regardless of `--quiet`. 115 116-f:: 117--force:: 118 When switching branches, proceed even if the index or the 119 working tree differs from HEAD. This is used to throw away 120 local changes. 121+ 122When checking out paths from the index, do not fail upon unmerged 123entries; instead, unmerged entries are ignored. 124 125--ours:: 126--theirs:: 127 When checking out paths from the index, check out stage #2 128 ('ours') or #3 ('theirs') for unmerged paths. 129+ 130Note that during `git rebase` and `git pull --rebase`, 'ours' and 131'theirs' may appear swapped; `--ours` gives the version from the 132branch the changes are rebased onto, while `--theirs` gives the 133version from the branch that holds your work that is being rebased. 134+ 135This is because `rebase` is used in a workflow that treats the 136history at the remote as the shared canonical one, and treats the 137work done on the branch you are rebasing as the third-party work to 138be integrated, and you are temporarily assuming the role of the 139keeper of the canonical history during the rebase. As the keeper of 140the canonical history, you need to view the history from the remote 141as `ours` (i.e. "our shared canonical history"), while what you did 142on your side branch as `theirs` (i.e. "one contributor's work on top 143of it"). 144 145-b <new_branch>:: 146 Create a new branch named <new_branch> and start it at 147 <start_point>; see linkgit:git-branch[1] for details. 148 149-B <new_branch>:: 150 Creates the branch <new_branch> and start it at <start_point>; 151 if it already exists, then reset it to <start_point>. This is 152 equivalent to running "git branch" with "-f"; see 153 linkgit:git-branch[1] for details. 154 155-t:: 156--track:: 157 When creating a new branch, set up "upstream" configuration. See 158 "--track" in linkgit:git-branch[1] for details. 159+ 160If no `-b` option is given, the name of the new branch will be 161derived from the remote-tracking branch, by looking at the local part of 162the refspec configured for the corresponding remote, and then stripping 163the initial part up to the "*". 164This would tell us to use "hack" as the local branch when branching 165off of "origin/hack" (or "remotes/origin/hack", or even 166"refs/remotes/origin/hack"). If the given name has no slash, or the above 167guessing results in an empty name, the guessing is aborted. You can 168explicitly give a name with `-b` in such a case. 169 170--no-track:: 171 Do not set up "upstream" configuration, even if the 172 branch.autoSetupMerge configuration variable is true. 173 174-l:: 175 Create the new branch's reflog; see linkgit:git-branch[1] for 176 details. 177 178--detach:: 179 Rather than checking out a branch to work on it, check out a 180 commit for inspection and discardable experiments. 181 This is the default behavior of "git checkout <commit>" when 182 <commit> is not a branch name. See the "DETACHED HEAD" section 183 below for details. 184 185--orphan <new_branch>:: 186 Create a new 'orphan' branch, named <new_branch>, started from 187 <start_point> and switch to it. The first commit made on this 188 new branch will have no parents and it will be the root of a new 189 history totally disconnected from all the other branches and 190 commits. 191+ 192The index and the working tree are adjusted as if you had previously run 193"git checkout <start_point>". This allows you to start a new history 194that records a set of paths similar to <start_point> by easily running 195"git commit -a" to make the root commit. 196+ 197This can be useful when you want to publish the tree from a commit 198without exposing its full history. You might want to do this to publish 199an open source branch of a project whose current tree is "clean", but 200whose full history contains proprietary or otherwise encumbered bits of 201code. 202+ 203If you want to start a disconnected history that records a set of paths 204that is totally different from the one of <start_point>, then you should 205clear the index and the working tree right after creating the orphan 206branch by running "git rm -rf ." from the top level of the working tree. 207Afterwards you will be ready to prepare your new files, repopulating the 208working tree, by copying them from elsewhere, extracting a tarball, etc. 209 210--ignore-skip-worktree-bits:: 211 In sparse checkout mode, `git checkout -- <paths>` would 212 update only entries matched by <paths> and sparse patterns 213 in $GIT_DIR/info/sparse-checkout. This option ignores 214 the sparse patterns and adds back any files in <paths>. 215 216-m:: 217--merge:: 218 When switching branches, 219 if you have local modifications to one or more files that 220 are different between the current branch and the branch to 221 which you are switching, the command refuses to switch 222 branches in order to preserve your modifications in context. 223 However, with this option, a three-way merge between the current 224 branch, your working tree contents, and the new branch 225 is done, and you will be on the new branch. 226+ 227When a merge conflict happens, the index entries for conflicting 228paths are left unmerged, and you need to resolve the conflicts 229and mark the resolved paths with `git add` (or `git rm` if the merge 230should result in deletion of the path). 231+ 232When checking out paths from the index, this option lets you recreate 233the conflicted merge in the specified paths. 234 235--conflict=<style>:: 236 The same as --merge option above, but changes the way the 237 conflicting hunks are presented, overriding the 238 merge.conflictStyle configuration variable. Possible values are 239 "merge" (default) and "diff3" (in addition to what is shown by 240 "merge" style, shows the original contents). 241 242-p:: 243--patch:: 244 Interactively select hunks in the difference between the 245 <tree-ish> (or the index, if unspecified) and the working 246 tree. The chosen hunks are then applied in reverse to the 247 working tree (and if a <tree-ish> was specified, the index). 248+ 249This means that you can use `git checkout -p` to selectively discard 250edits from your current working tree. See the ``Interactive Mode'' 251section of linkgit:git-add[1] to learn how to operate the `--patch` mode. 252 253--ignore-other-worktrees:: 254 `git checkout` refuses when the wanted ref is already checked 255 out by another worktree. This option makes it check the ref 256 out anyway. In other words, the ref can be held by more than one 257 worktree. 258 259--[no-]recurse-submodules:: 260 Using --recurse-submodules will update the content of all initialized 261 submodules according to the commit recorded in the superproject. If 262 local modifications in a submodule would be overwritten the checkout 263 will fail unless `-f` is used. If nothing (or --no-recurse-submodules) 264 is used, the work trees of submodules will not be updated. 265 266<branch>:: 267 Branch to checkout; if it refers to a branch (i.e., a name that, 268 when prepended with "refs/heads/", is a valid ref), then that 269 branch is checked out. Otherwise, if it refers to a valid 270 commit, your HEAD becomes "detached" and you are no longer on 271 any branch (see below for details). 272+ 273As a special case, the `"@{-N}"` syntax for the N-th last branch/commit 274checks out branches (instead of detaching). You may also specify 275`-` which is synonymous with `"@{-1}"`. 276+ 277As a further special case, you may use `"A...B"` as a shortcut for the 278merge base of `A` and `B` if there is exactly one merge base. You can 279leave out at most one of `A` and `B`, in which case it defaults to `HEAD`. 280 281<new_branch>:: 282 Name for the new branch. 283 284<start_point>:: 285 The name of a commit at which to start the new branch; see 286 linkgit:git-branch[1] for details. Defaults to HEAD. 287 288<tree-ish>:: 289 Tree to checkout from (when paths are given). If not specified, 290 the index will be used. 291 292 293 294DETACHED HEAD 295------------- 296HEAD normally refers to a named branch (e.g. 'master'). Meanwhile, each 297branch refers to a specific commit. Let's look at a repo with three 298commits, one of them tagged, and with branch 'master' checked out: 299 300------------ 301 HEAD (refers to branch 'master') 302 | 303 v 304a---b---c branch 'master' (refers to commit 'c') 305 ^ 306 | 307 tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b') 308------------ 309 310When a commit is created in this state, the branch is updated to refer to 311the new commit. Specifically, 'git commit' creates a new commit 'd', whose 312parent is commit 'c', and then updates branch 'master' to refer to new 313commit 'd'. HEAD still refers to branch 'master' and so indirectly now refers 314to commit 'd': 315 316------------ 317$ edit; git add; git commit 318 319 HEAD (refers to branch 'master') 320 | 321 v 322a---b---c---d branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd') 323 ^ 324 | 325 tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b') 326------------ 327 328It is sometimes useful to be able to checkout a commit that is not at 329the tip of any named branch, or even to create a new commit that is not 330referenced by a named branch. Let's look at what happens when we 331checkout commit 'b' (here we show two ways this may be done): 332 333------------ 334$ git checkout v2.0 # or 335$ git checkout master^^ 336 337 HEAD (refers to commit 'b') 338 | 339 v 340a---b---c---d branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd') 341 ^ 342 | 343 tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b') 344------------ 345 346Notice that regardless of which checkout command we use, HEAD now refers 347directly to commit 'b'. This is known as being in detached HEAD state. 348It means simply that HEAD refers to a specific commit, as opposed to 349referring to a named branch. Let's see what happens when we create a commit: 350 351------------ 352$ edit; git add; git commit 353 354 HEAD (refers to commit 'e') 355 | 356 v 357 e 358 / 359a---b---c---d branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd') 360 ^ 361 | 362 tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b') 363------------ 364 365There is now a new commit 'e', but it is referenced only by HEAD. We can 366of course add yet another commit in this state: 367 368------------ 369$ edit; git add; git commit 370 371 HEAD (refers to commit 'f') 372 | 373 v 374 e---f 375 / 376a---b---c---d branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd') 377 ^ 378 | 379 tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b') 380------------ 381 382In fact, we can perform all the normal Git operations. But, let's look 383at what happens when we then checkout master: 384 385------------ 386$ git checkout master 387 388 HEAD (refers to branch 'master') 389 e---f | 390 / v 391a---b---c---d branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd') 392 ^ 393 | 394 tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b') 395------------ 396 397It is important to realize that at this point nothing refers to commit 398'f'. Eventually commit 'f' (and by extension commit 'e') will be deleted 399by the routine Git garbage collection process, unless we create a reference 400before that happens. If we have not yet moved away from commit 'f', 401any of these will create a reference to it: 402 403------------ 404$ git checkout -b foo <1> 405$ git branch foo <2> 406$ git tag foo <3> 407------------ 408 409<1> creates a new branch 'foo', which refers to commit 'f', and then 410updates HEAD to refer to branch 'foo'. In other words, we'll no longer 411be in detached HEAD state after this command. 412 413<2> similarly creates a new branch 'foo', which refers to commit 'f', 414but leaves HEAD detached. 415 416<3> creates a new tag 'foo', which refers to commit 'f', 417leaving HEAD detached. 418 419If we have moved away from commit 'f', then we must first recover its object 420name (typically by using git reflog), and then we can create a reference to 421it. For example, to see the last two commits to which HEAD referred, we 422can use either of these commands: 423 424------------ 425$ git reflog -2 HEAD # or 426$ git log -g -2 HEAD 427------------ 428 429ARGUMENT DISAMBIGUATION 430----------------------- 431 432When there is only one argument given and it is not `--` (e.g. "git 433checkout abc"), and when the argument is both a valid `<tree-ish>` 434(e.g. a branch "abc" exists) and a valid `<pathspec>` (e.g. a file 435or a directory whose name is "abc" exists), Git would usually ask 436you to disambiguate. Because checking out a branch is so common an 437operation, however, "git checkout abc" takes "abc" as a `<tree-ish>` 438in such a situation. Use `git checkout -- <pathspec>` if you want 439to checkout these paths out of the index. 440 441EXAMPLES 442-------- 443 444. The following sequence checks out the `master` branch, reverts 445the `Makefile` to two revisions back, deletes hello.c by 446mistake, and gets it back from the index. 447+ 448------------ 449$ git checkout master <1> 450$ git checkout master~2 Makefile <2> 451$ rm -f hello.c 452$ git checkout hello.c <3> 453------------ 454+ 455<1> switch branch 456<2> take a file out of another commit 457<3> restore hello.c from the index 458+ 459If you want to check out _all_ C source files out of the index, 460you can say 461+ 462------------ 463$ git checkout -- '*.c' 464------------ 465+ 466Note the quotes around `*.c`. The file `hello.c` will also be 467checked out, even though it is no longer in the working tree, 468because the file globbing is used to match entries in the index 469(not in the working tree by the shell). 470+ 471If you have an unfortunate branch that is named `hello.c`, this 472step would be confused as an instruction to switch to that branch. 473You should instead write: 474+ 475------------ 476$ git checkout -- hello.c 477------------ 478 479. After working in the wrong branch, switching to the correct 480branch would be done using: 481+ 482------------ 483$ git checkout mytopic 484------------ 485+ 486However, your "wrong" branch and correct "mytopic" branch may 487differ in files that you have modified locally, in which case 488the above checkout would fail like this: 489+ 490------------ 491$ git checkout mytopic 492error: You have local changes to 'frotz'; not switching branches. 493------------ 494+ 495You can give the `-m` flag to the command, which would try a 496three-way merge: 497+ 498------------ 499$ git checkout -m mytopic 500Auto-merging frotz 501------------ 502+ 503After this three-way merge, the local modifications are _not_ 504registered in your index file, so `git diff` would show you what 505changes you made since the tip of the new branch. 506 507. When a merge conflict happens during switching branches with 508the `-m` option, you would see something like this: 509+ 510------------ 511$ git checkout -m mytopic 512Auto-merging frotz 513ERROR: Merge conflict in frotz 514fatal: merge program failed 515------------ 516+ 517At this point, `git diff` shows the changes cleanly merged as in 518the previous example, as well as the changes in the conflicted 519files. Edit and resolve the conflict and mark it resolved with 520`git add` as usual: 521+ 522------------ 523$ edit frotz 524$ git add frotz 525------------ 526 527GIT 528--- 529Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite