1git-branch(1) 2============= 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-branch - List, create, or delete branches. 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'git-branch' [-r] [-a] [-v] [--abbrev=<length>] 12'git-branch' [-l] [-f] <branchname> [<start-point>] 13'git-branch' (-d | -D) <branchname>... 14 15DESCRIPTION 16----------- 17With no arguments given a list of existing branches 18will be shown, the current branch will be highlighted with an asterisk. 19Option `-r` causes the remote-tracking branches to be listed, 20and option `-a` shows both. 21 22In its second form, a new branch named <branchname> will be created. 23It will start out with a head equal to the one given as <start-point>. 24If no <start-point> is given, the branch will be created with a head 25equal to that of the currently checked out branch. 26 27With a `-d` or `-D` option, `<branchname>` will be deleted. You may 28specify more than one branch for deletion. If the branch currently 29has a ref log then the ref log will also be deleted. 30 31 32OPTIONS 33------- 34-d:: 35 Delete a branch. The branch must be fully merged. 36 37-D:: 38 Delete a branch irrespective of its index status. 39 40-l:: 41 Create the branch's ref log. This activates recording of 42 all changes to made the branch ref, enabling use of date 43 based sha1 expressions such as "<branchname>@{yesterday}". 44 45-f:: 46 Force the creation of a new branch even if it means deleting 47 a branch that already exists with the same name. 48 49-r:: 50 List the remote-tracking branches. 51 52-a:: 53 List both remote-tracking branches and local branches. 54 55-v:: 56 Show sha1 and subject message for each head. 57 58--abbrev=<length>:: 59 Alter minimum display length for sha1 in output listing, 60 default value is 7. 61 62<branchname>:: 63 The name of the branch to create or delete. 64 The new branch name must pass all checks defined by 65 gitlink:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 66 may restrict the characters allowed in a branch name. 67 68<start-point>:: 69 The new branch will be created with a HEAD equal to this. It may 70 be given as a branch name, a commit-id, or a tag. If this option 71 is omitted, the current branch is assumed. 72 73 74 75Examples 76-------- 77 78Start development off of a known tag:: 79+ 80------------ 81$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 82$ cd my2.6 83$ git branch my2.6.14 v2.6.14 <1> 84$ git checkout my2.6.14 85------------ 86+ 87<1> This step and the next one could be combined into a single step with 88"checkout -b my2.6.14 v2.6.14". 89 90Delete unneeded branch:: 91+ 92------------ 93$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/.../git.git my.git 94$ cd my.git 95$ git branch -D todo <1> 96------------ 97+ 98<1> delete todo branch even if the "master" branch does not have all 99commits from todo branch. 100 101 102Notes 103----- 104 105If you are creating a branch that you want to immediately checkout, it's 106easier to use the git checkout command with its `-b` option to create 107a branch and check it out with a single command. 108 109 110Author 111------ 112Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> 113 114Documentation 115-------------- 116Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 117 118GIT 119--- 120Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite 121