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 [(--merged | --no-merged | --contains) [<commit>]] 14'git branch' [--track | --no-track] [-l] [-f] <branchname> [<start-point>] 15'git branch' (-m | -M) [<oldbranch>] <newbranch> 16'git branch' (-d | -D) [-r] <branchname>... 17 18DESCRIPTION 19----------- 20 21With no arguments, existing branches are listed and the current branch will 22be highlighted with an asterisk. Option `-r` causes the remote-tracking 23branches to be listed, and option `-a` shows both. 24 25With `--contains`, shows only the branches that contain the named commit 26(in other words, the branches whose tip commits are descendants of the 27named commit). With `--merged`, only branches merged into the named 28commit (i.e. the branches whose tip commits are reachable from the named 29commit) will be listed. With `--no-merged` only branches not merged into 30the named commit will be listed. If the <commit> argument is missing it 31defaults to 'HEAD' (i.e. the tip of the current branch). 32 33In the command's second form, a new branch named <branchname> will be created. 34It will start out with a head equal to the one given as <start-point>. 35If no <start-point> is given, the branch will be created with a head 36equal to that of the currently checked out branch. 37 38Note that this will create the new branch, but it will not switch the 39working tree to it; use "git checkout <newbranch>" to switch to the 40new branch. 41 42When a local branch is started off a remote branch, git sets up the 43branch so that 'git-pull' will appropriately merge from 44the remote branch. This behavior may be changed via the global 45`branch.autosetupmerge` configuration flag. That setting can be 46overridden by using the `--track` and `--no-track` options. 47 48With a '-m' or '-M' option, <oldbranch> will be renamed to <newbranch>. 49If <oldbranch> had a corresponding reflog, it is renamed to match 50<newbranch>, and a reflog entry is created to remember the branch 51renaming. If <newbranch> exists, -M must be used to force the rename 52to happen. 53 54With a `-d` or `-D` option, `<branchname>` will be deleted. You may 55specify more than one branch for deletion. If the branch currently 56has a reflog then the reflog will also be deleted. 57 58Use -r together with -d to delete remote-tracking branches. Note, that it 59only makes sense to delete remote-tracking branches if they no longer exist 60in the remote repository or if 'git-fetch' was configured not to fetch 61them again. See also the 'prune' subcommand of linkgit:git-remote[1] for a 62way to clean up all obsolete remote-tracking branches. 63 64 65OPTIONS 66------- 67-d:: 68 Delete a branch. The branch must be fully merged in HEAD. 69 70-D:: 71 Delete a branch irrespective of its merged status. 72 73-l:: 74 Create the branch's reflog. This activates recording of 75 all changes made to the branch ref, enabling use of date 76 based sha1 expressions such as "<branchname>@\{yesterday}". 77 78-f:: 79 Reset <branchname> to <startpoint> if <branchname> exists 80 already. Without `-f` 'git-branch' refuses to change an existing branch. 81 82-m:: 83 Move/rename a branch and the corresponding reflog. 84 85-M:: 86 Move/rename a branch even if the new branch name already exists. 87 88--color:: 89 Color branches to highlight current, local, and remote branches. 90 91--no-color:: 92 Turn off branch colors, even when the configuration file gives the 93 default to color output. 94 95-r:: 96 List or delete (if used with -d) the remote-tracking branches. 97 98-a:: 99 List both remote-tracking branches and local branches. 100 101-v:: 102--verbose:: 103 Show sha1 and commit subject line for each head, along with 104 relationship to upstream branch (if any). If given twice, print 105 the name of the upstream branch, as well. 106 107--abbrev=<length>:: 108 Alter the sha1's minimum display length in the output listing. 109 The default value is 7. 110 111--no-abbrev:: 112 Display the full sha1s in the output listing rather than abbreviating them. 113 114-t:: 115--track:: 116 When creating a new branch, set up configuration to mark the 117 start-point branch as "upstream" from the new branch. This 118 configuration will tell git to show the relationship between the 119 two branches in `git status` and `git branch -v`. Furthermore, 120 it directs `git pull` without arguments to pull from the 121 upstream when the new branch is checked out. 122+ 123This behavior is the default when the start point is a remote branch. 124Set the branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable to `false` if you 125want `git checkout` and `git branch` to always behave as if '--no-track' 126were given. Set it to `always` if you want this behavior when the 127start-point is either a local or remote branch. 128 129--no-track:: 130 Do not set up "upstream" configuration, even if the 131 branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable is true. 132 133--contains <commit>:: 134 Only list branches which contain the specified commit. 135 136--merged:: 137 Only list branches which are fully contained by HEAD. 138 139--no-merged:: 140 Do not list branches which are fully contained by HEAD. 141 142<branchname>:: 143 The name of the branch to create or delete. 144 The new branch name must pass all checks defined by 145 linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 146 may restrict the characters allowed in a branch name. 147 148<start-point>:: 149 The new branch will be created with a HEAD equal to this. It may 150 be given as a branch name, a commit-id, or a tag. If this option 151 is omitted, the current branch is assumed. 152 153<oldbranch>:: 154 The name of an existing branch to rename. 155 156<newbranch>:: 157 The new name for an existing branch. The same restrictions as for 158 <branchname> apply. 159 160 161Examples 162-------- 163 164Start development from a known tag:: 165+ 166------------ 167$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 168$ cd my2.6 169$ git branch my2.6.14 v2.6.14 <1> 170$ git checkout my2.6.14 171------------ 172+ 173<1> This step and the next one could be combined into a single step with 174"checkout -b my2.6.14 v2.6.14". 175 176Delete an unneeded branch:: 177+ 178------------ 179$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/.../git.git my.git 180$ cd my.git 181$ git branch -d -r origin/todo origin/html origin/man <1> 182$ git branch -D test <2> 183------------ 184+ 185<1> Delete the remote-tracking branches "todo", "html" and "man". The next 186'fetch' or 'pull' will create them again unless you configure them not to. 187See linkgit:git-fetch[1]. 188<2> Delete the "test" branch even if the "master" branch (or whichever branch 189is currently checked out) does not have all commits from the test branch. 190 191 192Notes 193----- 194 195If you are creating a branch that you want to checkout immediately, it is 196easier to use the git checkout command with its `-b` option to create 197a branch and check it out with a single command. 198 199The options `--contains`, `--merged` and `--no-merged` serve three related 200but different purposes: 201 202- `--contains <commit>` is used to find all branches which will need 203 special attention if <commit> were to be rebased or amended, since those 204 branches contain the specified <commit>. 205 206- `--merged` is used to find all branches which can be safely deleted, 207 since those branches are fully contained by HEAD. 208 209- `--no-merged` is used to find branches which are candidates for merging 210 into HEAD, since those branches are not fully contained by HEAD. 211 212Author 213------ 214Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> 215 216Documentation 217-------------- 218Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 219 220GIT 221--- 222Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite