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. Use -r together with -d 49to delete remote-tracking branches. 50 51 52OPTIONS 53------- 54-d:: 55 Delete a branch. The branch must be fully merged. 56 57-D:: 58 Delete a branch irrespective of its index status. 59 60-l:: 61 Create the branch's reflog. This activates recording of 62 all changes made to the branch ref, enabling use of date 63 based sha1 expressions such as "<branchname>@\{yesterday}". 64 65-f:: 66 Force the creation of a new branch even if it means deleting 67 a branch that already exists with the same name. 68 69-m:: 70 Move/rename a branch and the corresponding reflog. 71 72-M:: 73 Move/rename a branch even if the new branchname already exists. 74 75--color:: 76 Color branches to highlight current, local, and remote branches. 77 78--no-color:: 79 Turn off branch colors, even when the configuration file gives the 80 default to color output. 81 82-r:: 83 List or delete (if used with -d) the remote-tracking branches. 84 85-a:: 86 List both remote-tracking branches and local branches. 87 88-v, --verbose:: 89 Show sha1 and commit subject line for each head. 90 91--abbrev=<length>:: 92 Alter minimum display length for sha1 in output listing, 93 default value is 7. 94 95--no-abbrev:: 96 Display the full sha1s in output listing rather than abbreviating them. 97 98--track:: 99 Set up configuration so that git-pull will automatically 100 retrieve data from the remote branch. Use this if you always 101 pull from the same remote branch into the new branch, or if you 102 don't want to use "git pull <repository> <refspec>" explicitly. Set the 103 branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable to true if you 104 want git-checkout and git-branch to always behave as if 105 '--track' were given. 106 107--no-track:: 108 When a branch is created off a remote branch, 109 set up configuration so that git-pull will not retrieve data 110 from the remote branch, ignoring the branch.autosetupmerge 111 configuration variable. 112 113<branchname>:: 114 The name of the branch to create or delete. 115 The new branch name must pass all checks defined by 116 gitlink:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 117 may restrict the characters allowed in a branch name. 118 119<start-point>:: 120 The new branch will be created with a HEAD equal to this. It may 121 be given as a branch name, a commit-id, or a tag. If this option 122 is omitted, the current branch is assumed. 123 124<oldbranch>:: 125 The name of an existing branch to rename. 126 127<newbranch>:: 128 The new name for an existing branch. The same restrictions as for 129 <branchname> applies. 130 131 132Examples 133-------- 134 135Start development off of a known tag:: 136+ 137------------ 138$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 139$ cd my2.6 140$ git branch my2.6.14 v2.6.14 <1> 141$ git checkout my2.6.14 142------------ 143+ 144<1> This step and the next one could be combined into a single step with 145"checkout -b my2.6.14 v2.6.14". 146 147Delete unneeded branch:: 148+ 149------------ 150$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/.../git.git my.git 151$ cd my.git 152$ git branch -d -r origin/todo origin/html origin/man <1> 153$ git branch -D test <2> 154------------ 155+ 156<1> Delete remote-tracking branches "todo", "html", "man" 157<2> Delete "test" branch even if the "master" branch does not have all 158commits from test branch. 159 160 161Notes 162----- 163 164If you are creating a branch that you want to immediately checkout, it's 165easier to use the git checkout command with its `-b` option to create 166a branch and check it out with a single command. 167 168 169Author 170------ 171Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> 172 173Documentation 174-------------- 175Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 176 177GIT 178--- 179Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite