1git-checkout(1) 2=============== 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-checkout - Checkout and switch to a branch 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'git-checkout' [-q] [-f] [[--track | --no-track] -b <new_branch> [-l]] [-m] [<branch>] 12'git-checkout' [<tree-ish>] <paths>... 13 14DESCRIPTION 15----------- 16 17When <paths> are not given, this command switches branches by 18updating the index and working tree to reflect the specified 19branch, <branch>, and updating HEAD to be <branch> or, if 20specified, <new_branch>. Using -b will cause <new_branch> to 21be created; in this case you can use the --track or --no-track 22options, which will be passed to `git branch`. 23 24When <paths> are given, this command does *not* switch 25branches. It updates the named paths in the working tree from 26the index file (i.e. it runs `git-checkout-index -f -u`), or 27from a named commit. In 28this case, the `-f` and `-b` options are meaningless and giving 29either of them results in an error. <tree-ish> argument can be 30used to specify a specific tree-ish (i.e. commit, tag or tree) 31to update the index for the given paths before updating the 32working tree. 33 34 35OPTIONS 36------- 37-q:: 38 Quiet, suppress feedback messages. 39 40-f:: 41 Proceed even if the index or the working tree differs 42 from HEAD. This is used to throw away local changes. 43 44-b:: 45 Create a new branch named <new_branch> and start it at 46 <branch>. The new branch name must pass all checks defined 47 by gitlink:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 48 may restrict the characters allowed in a branch name. 49 50--track:: 51 When -b is given and a branch is created off a remote branch, 52 set up configuration so that git-pull will automatically 53 retrieve data from the remote branch. Set the 54 branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable to true if you 55 want git-checkout and git-branch to always behave as if 56 '--track' were given. 57 58--no-track:: 59 When -b is given and a branch is created off a remote branch, 60 set up configuration so that git-pull will not retrieve data 61 from the remote branch, ignoring the branch.autosetupmerge 62 configuration variable. 63 64-l:: 65 Create the new branch's reflog. This activates recording of 66 all changes made to the branch ref, enabling use of date 67 based sha1 expressions such as "<branchname>@\{yesterday}". 68 69-m:: 70 If you have local modifications to one or more files that 71 are different between the current branch and the branch to 72 which you are switching, the command refuses to switch 73 branches in order to preserve your modifications in context. 74 However, with this option, a three-way merge between the current 75 branch, your working tree contents, and the new branch 76 is done, and you will be on the new branch. 77+ 78When a merge conflict happens, the index entries for conflicting 79paths are left unmerged, and you need to resolve the conflicts 80and mark the resolved paths with `git add` (or `git rm` if the merge 81should result in deletion of the path). 82 83<new_branch>:: 84 Name for the new branch. 85 86<branch>:: 87 Branch to checkout; may be any object ID that resolves to a 88 commit. Defaults to HEAD. 89+ 90When this parameter names a non-branch (but still a valid commit object), 91your HEAD becomes 'detached'. 92 93 94Detached HEAD 95------------- 96 97It is sometimes useful to be able to 'checkout' a commit that is 98not at the tip of one of your branches. The most obvious 99example is to check out the commit at a tagged official release 100point, like this: 101 102------------ 103$ git checkout v2.6.18 104------------ 105 106Earlier versions of git did not allow this and asked you to 107create a temporary branch using `-b` option, but starting from 108version 1.5.0, the above command 'detaches' your HEAD from the 109current branch and directly point at the commit named by the tag 110(`v2.6.18` in the above example). 111 112You can use usual git commands while in this state. You can use 113`git-reset --hard $othercommit` to further move around, for 114example. You can make changes and create a new commit on top of 115a detached HEAD. You can even create a merge by using `git 116merge $othercommit`. 117 118The state you are in while your HEAD is detached is not recorded 119by any branch (which is natural --- you are not on any branch). 120What this means is that you can discard your temporary commits 121and merges by switching back to an existing branch (e.g. `git 122checkout master`), and a later `git prune` or `git gc` would 123garbage-collect them. If you did this by mistake, you can ask 124the reflog for HEAD where you were, e.g. 125 126------------ 127$ git log -g -2 HEAD 128------------ 129 130 131EXAMPLES 132-------- 133 134. The following sequence checks out the `master` branch, reverts 135the `Makefile` to two revisions back, deletes hello.c by 136mistake, and gets it back from the index. 137+ 138------------ 139$ git checkout master <1> 140$ git checkout master~2 Makefile <2> 141$ rm -f hello.c 142$ git checkout hello.c <3> 143------------ 144+ 145<1> switch branch 146<2> take out a file out of other commit 147<3> restore hello.c from HEAD of current branch 148+ 149If you have an unfortunate branch that is named `hello.c`, this 150step would be confused as an instruction to switch to that branch. 151You should instead write: 152+ 153------------ 154$ git checkout -- hello.c 155------------ 156 157. After working in a wrong branch, switching to the correct 158branch would be done using: 159+ 160------------ 161$ git checkout mytopic 162------------ 163+ 164However, your "wrong" branch and correct "mytopic" branch may 165differ in files that you have locally modified, in which case, 166the above checkout would fail like this: 167+ 168------------ 169$ git checkout mytopic 170fatal: Entry 'frotz' not uptodate. Cannot merge. 171------------ 172+ 173You can give the `-m` flag to the command, which would try a 174three-way merge: 175+ 176------------ 177$ git checkout -m mytopic 178Auto-merging frotz 179------------ 180+ 181After this three-way merge, the local modifications are _not_ 182registered in your index file, so `git diff` would show you what 183changes you made since the tip of the new branch. 184 185. When a merge conflict happens during switching branches with 186the `-m` option, you would see something like this: 187+ 188------------ 189$ git checkout -m mytopic 190Auto-merging frotz 191merge: warning: conflicts during merge 192ERROR: Merge conflict in frotz 193fatal: merge program failed 194------------ 195+ 196At this point, `git diff` shows the changes cleanly merged as in 197the previous example, as well as the changes in the conflicted 198files. Edit and resolve the conflict and mark it resolved with 199`git add` as usual: 200+ 201------------ 202$ edit frotz 203$ git add frotz 204------------ 205 206 207Author 208------ 209Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 210 211Documentation 212-------------- 213Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 214 215GIT 216--- 217Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite