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' [-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. 27 28 29OPTIONS 30------- 31-d:: 32 Delete a branch. The branch must be fully merged. 33 34-D:: 35 Delete a branch irrespective of its index status. 36 37-f:: 38 Force the creation of a new branch even if it means deleting 39 a branch that already exists with the same name. 40 41-r:: 42 List only the "remote" branches. 43 44<branchname>:: 45 The name of the branch to create or delete. 46 The new branch name must pass all checks defined by 47 gitlink:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 48 may restrict the characters allowed in a branch name. 49 50<start-point>:: 51 The new branch will be created with a HEAD equal to this. It may 52 be given as a branch name, a commit-id, or a tag. If this option 53 is omitted, the current branch is assumed. 54 55 56 57Examples 58-------- 59 60Start development off of a known tag:: 61+ 62------------ 63$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 64$ cd my2.6 65$ git branch my2.6.14 v2.6.14 <1> 66$ git checkout my2.6.14 67------------ 68+ 69<1> This step and the next one could be combined into a single step with 70"checkout -b my2.6.14 v2.6.14". 71 72Delete unneeded branch:: 73+ 74------------ 75$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/.../git.git my.git 76$ cd my.git 77$ git branch -D todo <1> 78------------ 79+ 80<1> delete todo branch even if the "master" branch does not have all 81commits from todo branch. 82 83 84Notes 85----- 86 87If you are creating a branch that you want to immediately checkout, it's 88easier to use the git checkout command with its `-b` option to create 89a branch and check it out with a single command. 90 91 92Author 93------ 94Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> 95 96Documentation 97-------------- 98Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 99 100GIT 101--- 102Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite 103