Documentation / git-checkout.txton commit wt-status.h: drop stdio.h include (7a06fb0)
   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' [<tree-ish>] [--] <pathspec>...
  17'git checkout' (-p|--patch) [<tree-ish>] [--] [<paths>...]
  18
  19DESCRIPTION
  20-----------
  21Updates files in the working tree to match the version in the index
  22or the specified tree.  If no paths are given, 'git checkout' will
  23also update `HEAD` to set the specified branch as the current
  24branch.
  25
  26'git checkout' <branch>::
  27        To prepare for working on <branch>, switch to it by updating
  28        the index and the files in the working tree, and by pointing
  29        HEAD at the branch. Local modifications to the files in the
  30        working tree are kept, so that they can be committed to the
  31        <branch>.
  32+
  33If <branch> is not found but there does exist a tracking branch in
  34exactly one remote (call it <remote>) with a matching name, treat as
  35equivalent to
  36+
  37------------
  38$ git checkout -b <branch> --track <remote>/<branch>
  39------------
  40+
  41If the branch exists in multiple remotes and one of them is named by
  42the `checkout.defaultRemote` configuration variable, we'll use that
  43one for the purposes of disambiguation, even if the `<branch>` isn't
  44unique across all remotes. Set it to
  45e.g. `checkout.defaultRemote=origin` to always checkout remote
  46branches from there if `<branch>` is ambiguous but exists on the
  47'origin' remote. See also `checkout.defaultRemote` in
  48linkgit:git-config[1].
  49+
  50You could omit <branch>, in which case the command degenerates to
  51"check out the current branch", which is a glorified no-op with
  52rather expensive side-effects to show only the tracking information,
  53if exists, for the current branch.
  54
  55'git checkout' -b|-B <new_branch> [<start point>]::
  56
  57        Specifying `-b` causes a new branch to be created as if
  58        linkgit:git-branch[1] were called and then checked out.  In
  59        this case you can use the `--track` or `--no-track` options,
  60        which will be passed to 'git branch'.  As a convenience,
  61        `--track` without `-b` implies branch creation; see the
  62        description of `--track` below.
  63+
  64If `-B` is given, <new_branch> is created if it doesn't exist; otherwise, it
  65is reset. This is the transactional equivalent of
  66+
  67------------
  68$ git branch -f <branch> [<start point>]
  69$ git checkout <branch>
  70------------
  71+
  72that is to say, the branch is not reset/created unless "git checkout" is
  73successful.
  74
  75'git checkout' --detach [<branch>]::
  76'git checkout' [--detach] <commit>::
  77
  78        Prepare to work on top of <commit>, by detaching HEAD at it
  79        (see "DETACHED HEAD" section), and updating the index and the
  80        files in the working tree.  Local modifications to the files
  81        in the working tree are kept, so that the resulting working
  82        tree will be the state recorded in the commit plus the local
  83        modifications.
  84+
  85When the <commit> argument is a branch name, the `--detach` option can
  86be used to detach HEAD at the tip of the branch (`git checkout
  87<branch>` would check out that branch without detaching HEAD).
  88+
  89Omitting <branch> detaches HEAD at the tip of the current branch.
  90
  91'git checkout' [<tree-ish>] [--] <pathspec>...::
  92
  93        Overwrite paths in the working tree by replacing with the
  94        contents in the index or in the <tree-ish> (most often a
  95        commit).  When a <tree-ish> is given, the paths that
  96        match the <pathspec> are updated both in the index and in
  97        the working tree.
  98+
  99The index may contain unmerged entries because of a previous failed merge.
 100By default, if you try to check out such an entry from the index, the
 101checkout operation will fail and nothing will be checked out.
 102Using `-f` will ignore these unmerged entries.  The contents from a
 103specific side of the merge can be checked out of the index by
 104using `--ours` or `--theirs`.  With `-m`, changes made to the working tree
 105file can be discarded to re-create the original conflicted merge result.
 106
 107'git checkout' (-p|--patch) [<tree-ish>] [--] [<pathspec>...]::
 108        This is similar to the "check out paths to the working tree
 109        from either the index or from a tree-ish" mode described
 110        above, but lets you use the interactive interface to show
 111        the "diff" output and choose which hunks to use in the
 112        result.  See below for the description of `--patch` option.
 113
 114
 115OPTIONS
 116-------
 117-q::
 118--quiet::
 119        Quiet, suppress feedback messages.
 120
 121--[no-]progress::
 122        Progress status is reported on the standard error stream
 123        by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless `--quiet`
 124        is specified. This flag enables progress reporting even if not
 125        attached to a terminal, regardless of `--quiet`.
 126
 127-f::
 128--force::
 129        When switching branches, proceed even if the index or the
 130        working tree differs from HEAD.  This is used to throw away
 131        local changes.
 132+
 133When checking out paths from the index, do not fail upon unmerged
 134entries; instead, unmerged entries are ignored.
 135
 136--ours::
 137--theirs::
 138        When checking out paths from the index, check out stage #2
 139        ('ours') or #3 ('theirs') for unmerged paths.
 140+
 141Note that during `git rebase` and `git pull --rebase`, 'ours' and
 142'theirs' may appear swapped; `--ours` gives the version from the
 143branch the changes are rebased onto, while `--theirs` gives the
 144version from the branch that holds your work that is being rebased.
 145+
 146This is because `rebase` is used in a workflow that treats the
 147history at the remote as the shared canonical one, and treats the
 148work done on the branch you are rebasing as the third-party work to
 149be integrated, and you are temporarily assuming the role of the
 150keeper of the canonical history during the rebase.  As the keeper of
 151the canonical history, you need to view the history from the remote
 152as `ours` (i.e. "our shared canonical history"), while what you did
 153on your side branch as `theirs` (i.e. "one contributor's work on top
 154of it").
 155
 156-b <new_branch>::
 157        Create a new branch named <new_branch> and start it at
 158        <start_point>; see linkgit:git-branch[1] for details.
 159
 160-B <new_branch>::
 161        Creates the branch <new_branch> and start it at <start_point>;
 162        if it already exists, then reset it to <start_point>. This is
 163        equivalent to running "git branch" with "-f"; see
 164        linkgit:git-branch[1] for details.
 165
 166-t::
 167--track::
 168        When creating a new branch, set up "upstream" configuration. See
 169        "--track" in linkgit:git-branch[1] for details.
 170+
 171If no `-b` option is given, the name of the new branch will be
 172derived from the remote-tracking branch, by looking at the local part of
 173the refspec configured for the corresponding remote, and then stripping
 174the initial part up to the "*".
 175This would tell us to use "hack" as the local branch when branching
 176off of "origin/hack" (or "remotes/origin/hack", or even
 177"refs/remotes/origin/hack").  If the given name has no slash, or the above
 178guessing results in an empty name, the guessing is aborted.  You can
 179explicitly give a name with `-b` in such a case.
 180
 181--no-track::
 182        Do not set up "upstream" configuration, even if the
 183        branch.autoSetupMerge configuration variable is true.
 184
 185-l::
 186        Create the new branch's reflog; see linkgit:git-branch[1] for
 187        details.
 188
 189--detach::
 190        Rather than checking out a branch to work on it, check out a
 191        commit for inspection and discardable experiments.
 192        This is the default behavior of "git checkout <commit>" when
 193        <commit> is not a branch name.  See the "DETACHED HEAD" section
 194        below for details.
 195
 196--orphan <new_branch>::
 197        Create a new 'orphan' branch, named <new_branch>, started from
 198        <start_point> and switch to it.  The first commit made on this
 199        new branch will have no parents and it will be the root of a new
 200        history totally disconnected from all the other branches and
 201        commits.
 202+
 203The index and the working tree are adjusted as if you had previously run
 204"git checkout <start_point>".  This allows you to start a new history
 205that records a set of paths similar to <start_point> by easily running
 206"git commit -a" to make the root commit.
 207+
 208This can be useful when you want to publish the tree from a commit
 209without exposing its full history. You might want to do this to publish
 210an open source branch of a project whose current tree is "clean", but
 211whose full history contains proprietary or otherwise encumbered bits of
 212code.
 213+
 214If you want to start a disconnected history that records a set of paths
 215that is totally different from the one of <start_point>, then you should
 216clear the index and the working tree right after creating the orphan
 217branch by running "git rm -rf ." from the top level of the working tree.
 218Afterwards you will be ready to prepare your new files, repopulating the
 219working tree, by copying them from elsewhere, extracting a tarball, etc.
 220
 221--ignore-skip-worktree-bits::
 222        In sparse checkout mode, `git checkout -- <paths>` would
 223        update only entries matched by <paths> and sparse patterns
 224        in $GIT_DIR/info/sparse-checkout. This option ignores
 225        the sparse patterns and adds back any files in <paths>.
 226
 227-m::
 228--merge::
 229        When switching branches,
 230        if you have local modifications to one or more files that
 231        are different between the current branch and the branch to
 232        which you are switching, the command refuses to switch
 233        branches in order to preserve your modifications in context.
 234        However, with this option, a three-way merge between the current
 235        branch, your working tree contents, and the new branch
 236        is done, and you will be on the new branch.
 237+
 238When a merge conflict happens, the index entries for conflicting
 239paths are left unmerged, and you need to resolve the conflicts
 240and mark the resolved paths with `git add` (or `git rm` if the merge
 241should result in deletion of the path).
 242+
 243When checking out paths from the index, this option lets you recreate
 244the conflicted merge in the specified paths.
 245+
 246When switching branches with `--merge`, staged changes may be lost.
 247
 248--conflict=<style>::
 249        The same as --merge option above, but changes the way the
 250        conflicting hunks are presented, overriding the
 251        merge.conflictStyle configuration variable.  Possible values are
 252        "merge" (default) and "diff3" (in addition to what is shown by
 253        "merge" style, shows the original contents).
 254
 255-p::
 256--patch::
 257        Interactively select hunks in the difference between the
 258        <tree-ish> (or the index, if unspecified) and the working
 259        tree.  The chosen hunks are then applied in reverse to the
 260        working tree (and if a <tree-ish> was specified, the index).
 261+
 262This means that you can use `git checkout -p` to selectively discard
 263edits from your current working tree. See the ``Interactive Mode''
 264section of linkgit:git-add[1] to learn how to operate the `--patch` mode.
 265+
 266Note that this option uses the no overlay mode by default (see also
 267`--[no-]overlay`), and currently doesn't support overlay mode.
 268
 269--ignore-other-worktrees::
 270        `git checkout` refuses when the wanted ref is already checked
 271        out by another worktree. This option makes it check the ref
 272        out anyway. In other words, the ref can be held by more than one
 273        worktree.
 274
 275--[no-]recurse-submodules::
 276        Using --recurse-submodules will update the content of all initialized
 277        submodules according to the commit recorded in the superproject. If
 278        local modifications in a submodule would be overwritten the checkout
 279        will fail unless `-f` is used. If nothing (or --no-recurse-submodules)
 280        is used, the work trees of submodules will not be updated.
 281        Just like linkgit:git-submodule[1], this will detach the
 282        submodules HEAD.
 283
 284--no-guess::
 285        Do not attempt to create a branch if a remote tracking branch
 286        of the same name exists.
 287
 288--[no-]overlay::
 289        In the default overlay mode, `git checkout` never
 290        removes files from the index or the working tree.  When
 291        specifying `--no-overlay`, files that appear in the index and
 292        working tree, but not in <tree-ish> are removed, to make them
 293        match <tree-ish> exactly.
 294
 295<branch>::
 296        Branch to checkout; if it refers to a branch (i.e., a name that,
 297        when prepended with "refs/heads/", is a valid ref), then that
 298        branch is checked out. Otherwise, if it refers to a valid
 299        commit, your HEAD becomes "detached" and you are no longer on
 300        any branch (see below for details).
 301+
 302You can use the `"@{-N}"` syntax to refer to the N-th last
 303branch/commit checked out using "git checkout" operation. You may
 304also specify `-` which is synonymous to `"@{-1}"`.
 305+
 306As a special case, you may use `"A...B"` as a shortcut for the
 307merge base of `A` and `B` if there is exactly one merge base. You can
 308leave out at most one of `A` and `B`, in which case it defaults to `HEAD`.
 309
 310<new_branch>::
 311        Name for the new branch.
 312
 313<start_point>::
 314        The name of a commit at which to start the new branch; see
 315        linkgit:git-branch[1] for details. Defaults to HEAD.
 316+
 317As a special case, you may use `"A...B"` as a shortcut for the
 318merge base of `A` and `B` if there is exactly one merge base. You can
 319leave out at most one of `A` and `B`, in which case it defaults to `HEAD`.
 320
 321<tree-ish>::
 322        Tree to checkout from (when paths are given). If not specified,
 323        the index will be used.
 324
 325
 326
 327DETACHED HEAD
 328-------------
 329HEAD normally refers to a named branch (e.g. 'master'). Meanwhile, each
 330branch refers to a specific commit. Let's look at a repo with three
 331commits, one of them tagged, and with branch 'master' checked out:
 332
 333------------
 334           HEAD (refers to branch 'master')
 335            |
 336            v
 337a---b---c  branch 'master' (refers to commit 'c')
 338    ^
 339    |
 340  tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b')
 341------------
 342
 343When a commit is created in this state, the branch is updated to refer to
 344the new commit. Specifically, 'git commit' creates a new commit 'd', whose
 345parent is commit 'c', and then updates branch 'master' to refer to new
 346commit 'd'. HEAD still refers to branch 'master' and so indirectly now refers
 347to commit 'd':
 348
 349------------
 350$ edit; git add; git commit
 351
 352               HEAD (refers to branch 'master')
 353                |
 354                v
 355a---b---c---d  branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd')
 356    ^
 357    |
 358  tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b')
 359------------
 360
 361It is sometimes useful to be able to checkout a commit that is not at
 362the tip of any named branch, or even to create a new commit that is not
 363referenced by a named branch. Let's look at what happens when we
 364checkout commit 'b' (here we show two ways this may be done):
 365
 366------------
 367$ git checkout v2.0  # or
 368$ git checkout master^^
 369
 370   HEAD (refers to commit 'b')
 371    |
 372    v
 373a---b---c---d  branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd')
 374    ^
 375    |
 376  tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b')
 377------------
 378
 379Notice that regardless of which checkout command we use, HEAD now refers
 380directly to commit 'b'. This is known as being in detached HEAD state.
 381It means simply that HEAD refers to a specific commit, as opposed to
 382referring to a named branch. Let's see what happens when we create a commit:
 383
 384------------
 385$ edit; git add; git commit
 386
 387     HEAD (refers to commit 'e')
 388      |
 389      v
 390      e
 391     /
 392a---b---c---d  branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd')
 393    ^
 394    |
 395  tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b')
 396------------
 397
 398There is now a new commit 'e', but it is referenced only by HEAD. We can
 399of course add yet another commit in this state:
 400
 401------------
 402$ edit; git add; git commit
 403
 404         HEAD (refers to commit 'f')
 405          |
 406          v
 407      e---f
 408     /
 409a---b---c---d  branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd')
 410    ^
 411    |
 412  tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b')
 413------------
 414
 415In fact, we can perform all the normal Git operations. But, let's look
 416at what happens when we then checkout master:
 417
 418------------
 419$ git checkout master
 420
 421               HEAD (refers to branch 'master')
 422      e---f     |
 423     /          v
 424a---b---c---d  branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd')
 425    ^
 426    |
 427  tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b')
 428------------
 429
 430It is important to realize that at this point nothing refers to commit
 431'f'. Eventually commit 'f' (and by extension commit 'e') will be deleted
 432by the routine Git garbage collection process, unless we create a reference
 433before that happens. If we have not yet moved away from commit 'f',
 434any of these will create a reference to it:
 435
 436------------
 437$ git checkout -b foo   <1>
 438$ git branch foo        <2>
 439$ git tag foo           <3>
 440------------
 441
 442<1> creates a new branch 'foo', which refers to commit 'f', and then
 443    updates HEAD to refer to branch 'foo'. In other words, we'll no longer
 444    be in detached HEAD state after this command.
 445
 446<2> similarly creates a new branch 'foo', which refers to commit 'f',
 447    but leaves HEAD detached.
 448
 449<3> creates a new tag 'foo', which refers to commit 'f',
 450    leaving HEAD detached.
 451
 452If we have moved away from commit 'f', then we must first recover its object
 453name (typically by using git reflog), and then we can create a reference to
 454it. For example, to see the last two commits to which HEAD referred, we
 455can use either of these commands:
 456
 457------------
 458$ git reflog -2 HEAD # or
 459$ git log -g -2 HEAD
 460------------
 461
 462ARGUMENT DISAMBIGUATION
 463-----------------------
 464
 465When there is only one argument given and it is not `--` (e.g. "git
 466checkout abc"), and when the argument is both a valid `<tree-ish>`
 467(e.g. a branch "abc" exists) and a valid `<pathspec>` (e.g. a file
 468or a directory whose name is "abc" exists), Git would usually ask
 469you to disambiguate.  Because checking out a branch is so common an
 470operation, however, "git checkout abc" takes "abc" as a `<tree-ish>`
 471in such a situation.  Use `git checkout -- <pathspec>` if you want
 472to checkout these paths out of the index.
 473
 474EXAMPLES
 475--------
 476
 477. The following sequence checks out the `master` branch, reverts
 478  the `Makefile` to two revisions back, deletes hello.c by
 479  mistake, and gets it back from the index.
 480+
 481------------
 482$ git checkout master             <1>
 483$ git checkout master~2 Makefile  <2>
 484$ rm -f hello.c
 485$ git checkout hello.c            <3>
 486------------
 487+
 488<1> switch branch
 489<2> take a file out of another commit
 490<3> restore hello.c from the index
 491+
 492If you want to check out _all_ C source files out of the index,
 493you can say
 494+
 495------------
 496$ git checkout -- '*.c'
 497------------
 498+
 499Note the quotes around `*.c`.  The file `hello.c` will also be
 500checked out, even though it is no longer in the working tree,
 501because the file globbing is used to match entries in the index
 502(not in the working tree by the shell).
 503+
 504If you have an unfortunate branch that is named `hello.c`, this
 505step would be confused as an instruction to switch to that branch.
 506You should instead write:
 507+
 508------------
 509$ git checkout -- hello.c
 510------------
 511
 512. After working in the wrong branch, switching to the correct
 513  branch would be done using:
 514+
 515------------
 516$ git checkout mytopic
 517------------
 518+
 519However, your "wrong" branch and correct "mytopic" branch may
 520differ in files that you have modified locally, in which case
 521the above checkout would fail like this:
 522+
 523------------
 524$ git checkout mytopic
 525error: You have local changes to 'frotz'; not switching branches.
 526------------
 527+
 528You can give the `-m` flag to the command, which would try a
 529three-way merge:
 530+
 531------------
 532$ git checkout -m mytopic
 533Auto-merging frotz
 534------------
 535+
 536After this three-way merge, the local modifications are _not_
 537registered in your index file, so `git diff` would show you what
 538changes you made since the tip of the new branch.
 539
 540. When a merge conflict happens during switching branches with
 541  the `-m` option, you would see something like this:
 542+
 543------------
 544$ git checkout -m mytopic
 545Auto-merging frotz
 546ERROR: Merge conflict in frotz
 547fatal: merge program failed
 548------------
 549+
 550At this point, `git diff` shows the changes cleanly merged as in
 551the previous example, as well as the changes in the conflicted
 552files.  Edit and resolve the conflict and mark it resolved with
 553`git add` as usual:
 554+
 555------------
 556$ edit frotz
 557$ git add frotz
 558------------
 559
 560GIT
 561---
 562Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite