1git-checkout(1) 2=============== 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-checkout - Checkout a branch or paths to the working tree 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [<branch>] 12'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [-b <new_branch>] [<start_point>] 13'git checkout' [-f|--ours|--theirs|-m|--conflict=<style>] [<tree-ish>] [--] <paths>... 14'git checkout' --patch [<tree-ish>] [--] [<paths>...] 15 16DESCRIPTION 17----------- 18 19When <paths> are not given, this command switches branches by 20updating the index, working tree, and HEAD to reflect the specified 21branch. 22 23If `-b` is given, a new branch is created and checked out, as if 24linkgit:git-branch[1] were called; in this case you can 25use the --track or --no-track options, which will be passed to `git 26branch`. As a convenience, --track without `-b` implies branch 27creation; see the description of --track below. 28 29When <paths> or --patch are given, this command does *not* switch 30branches. It updates the named paths in the working tree from 31the index file, or from a named <tree-ish> (most often a commit). In 32this case, the `-b` and `--track` options are meaningless and giving 33either of them results in an error. The <tree-ish> argument can be 34used to specify a specific tree-ish (i.e. commit, tag or tree) 35to update the index for the given paths before updating the 36working tree. 37 38The index may contain unmerged entries after a failed merge. By 39default, if you try to check out such an entry from the index, the 40checkout operation will fail and nothing will be checked out. 41Using -f will ignore these unmerged entries. The contents from a 42specific side of the merge can be checked out of the index by 43using --ours or --theirs. With -m, changes made to the working tree 44file can be discarded to recreate the original conflicted merge result. 45 46OPTIONS 47------- 48-q:: 49 Quiet, suppress feedback messages. 50 51-f:: 52 When switching branches, proceed even if the index or the 53 working tree differs from HEAD. This is used to throw away 54 local changes. 55+ 56When checking out paths from the index, do not fail upon unmerged 57entries; instead, unmerged entries are ignored. 58 59--ours:: 60--theirs:: 61 When checking out paths from the index, check out stage #2 62 ('ours') or #3 ('theirs') for unmerged paths. 63 64-b:: 65 Create a new branch named <new_branch> and start it at 66 <start_point>; see linkgit:git-branch[1] for details. 67 68-t:: 69--track:: 70 When creating a new branch, set up "upstream" configuration. See 71 "--track" in linkgit:git-branch[1] for details. 72+ 73If no '-b' option is given, the name of the new branch will be 74derived from the remote branch. If "remotes/" or "refs/remotes/" 75is prefixed it is stripped away, and then the part up to the 76next slash (which would be the nickname of the remote) is removed. 77This would tell us to use "hack" as the local branch when branching 78off of "origin/hack" (or "remotes/origin/hack", or even 79"refs/remotes/origin/hack"). If the given name has no slash, or the above 80guessing results in an empty name, the guessing is aborted. You can 81explicitly give a name with '-b' in such a case. 82 83--no-track:: 84 Do not set up "upstream" configuration, even if the 85 branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable is true. 86 87-l:: 88 Create the new branch's reflog; see linkgit:git-branch[1] for 89 details. 90 91-m:: 92--merge:: 93 When switching branches, 94 if you have local modifications to one or more files that 95 are different between the current branch and the branch to 96 which you are switching, the command refuses to switch 97 branches in order to preserve your modifications in context. 98 However, with this option, a three-way merge between the current 99 branch, your working tree contents, and the new branch 100 is done, and you will be on the new branch. 101+ 102When a merge conflict happens, the index entries for conflicting 103paths are left unmerged, and you need to resolve the conflicts 104and mark the resolved paths with `git add` (or `git rm` if the merge 105should result in deletion of the path). 106+ 107When checking out paths from the index, this option lets you recreate 108the conflicted merge in the specified paths. 109 110--conflict=<style>:: 111 The same as --merge option above, but changes the way the 112 conflicting hunks are presented, overriding the 113 merge.conflictstyle configuration variable. Possible values are 114 "merge" (default) and "diff3" (in addition to what is shown by 115 "merge" style, shows the original contents). 116 117-p:: 118--patch:: 119 Interactively select hunks in the difference between the 120 <tree-ish> (or the index, if unspecified) and the working 121 tree. The chosen hunks are then applied in reverse to the 122 working tree (and if a <tree-ish> was specified, the index). 123+ 124This means that you can use `git checkout -p` to selectively discard 125edits from your current working tree. 126 127<branch>:: 128 Branch to checkout; if it refers to a branch (i.e., a name that, 129 when prepended with "refs/heads/", is a valid ref), then that 130 branch is checked out. Otherwise, if it refers to a valid 131 commit, your HEAD becomes "detached" and you are no longer on 132 any branch (see below for details). 133+ 134As a special case, the `"@\{-N\}"` syntax for the N-th last branch 135checks out the branch (instead of detaching). You may also specify 136`-` which is synonymous with `"@\{-1\}"`. 137 138<new_branch>:: 139 Name for the new branch. 140 141<start_point>:: 142 The name of a commit at which to start the new branch; see 143 linkgit:git-branch[1] for details. Defaults to HEAD. 144 145<tree-ish>:: 146 Tree to checkout from (when paths are given). If not specified, 147 the index will be used. 148 149 150 151Detached HEAD 152------------- 153 154It is sometimes useful to be able to 'checkout' a commit that is 155not at the tip of one of your branches. The most obvious 156example is to check out the commit at a tagged official release 157point, like this: 158 159------------ 160$ git checkout v2.6.18 161------------ 162 163Earlier versions of git did not allow this and asked you to 164create a temporary branch using the `-b` option, but starting from 165version 1.5.0, the above command 'detaches' your HEAD from the 166current branch and directly points at the commit named by the tag 167(`v2.6.18` in the example above). 168 169You can use all git commands while in this state. You can use 170`git reset --hard $othercommit` to further move around, for 171example. You can make changes and create a new commit on top of 172a detached HEAD. You can even create a merge by using `git 173merge $othercommit`. 174 175The state you are in while your HEAD is detached is not recorded 176by any branch (which is natural --- you are not on any branch). 177What this means is that you can discard your temporary commits 178and merges by switching back to an existing branch (e.g. `git 179checkout master`), and a later `git prune` or `git gc` would 180garbage-collect them. If you did this by mistake, you can ask 181the reflog for HEAD where you were, e.g. 182 183------------ 184$ git log -g -2 HEAD 185------------ 186 187 188EXAMPLES 189-------- 190 191. The following sequence checks out the `master` branch, reverts 192the `Makefile` to two revisions back, deletes hello.c by 193mistake, and gets it back from the index. 194+ 195------------ 196$ git checkout master <1> 197$ git checkout master~2 Makefile <2> 198$ rm -f hello.c 199$ git checkout hello.c <3> 200------------ 201+ 202<1> switch branch 203<2> take a file out of another commit 204<3> restore hello.c from the index 205+ 206If you have an unfortunate branch that is named `hello.c`, this 207step would be confused as an instruction to switch to that branch. 208You should instead write: 209+ 210------------ 211$ git checkout -- hello.c 212------------ 213 214. After working in the wrong branch, switching to the correct 215branch would be done using: 216+ 217------------ 218$ git checkout mytopic 219------------ 220+ 221However, your "wrong" branch and correct "mytopic" branch may 222differ in files that you have modified locally, in which case 223the above checkout would fail like this: 224+ 225------------ 226$ git checkout mytopic 227fatal: Entry 'frotz' not uptodate. Cannot merge. 228------------ 229+ 230You can give the `-m` flag to the command, which would try a 231three-way merge: 232+ 233------------ 234$ git checkout -m mytopic 235Auto-merging frotz 236------------ 237+ 238After this three-way merge, the local modifications are _not_ 239registered in your index file, so `git diff` would show you what 240changes you made since the tip of the new branch. 241 242. When a merge conflict happens during switching branches with 243the `-m` option, you would see something like this: 244+ 245------------ 246$ git checkout -m mytopic 247Auto-merging frotz 248ERROR: Merge conflict in frotz 249fatal: merge program failed 250------------ 251+ 252At this point, `git diff` shows the changes cleanly merged as in 253the previous example, as well as the changes in the conflicted 254files. Edit and resolve the conflict and mark it resolved with 255`git add` as usual: 256+ 257------------ 258$ edit frotz 259$ git add frotz 260------------ 261 262 263Author 264------ 265Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 266 267Documentation 268-------------- 269Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 270 271GIT 272--- 273Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite