1git-checkout(1) 2=============== 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-checkout - Checkout a branch or paths to the working tree 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [<branch>] 12'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [-b <new_branch>] [<start_point>] 13'git checkout' [-f|--ours|--theirs|-m|--conflict=<style>] [<tree-ish>] [--] <paths>... 14'git checkout' --patch [<tree-ish>] [--] [<paths>...] 15 16DESCRIPTION 17----------- 18Retrieves files from the index or specified tree and writes them 19to the working tree. 20 21'git checkout' [-b <new branch>] [<branch>]:: 22 23 When <paths> are not given, this command switches branches by 24 updating the index, working tree, and HEAD to reflect the 25 specified branch. 26+ 27If `-b` is given, a new branch is created and checked out, as if 28linkgit:git-branch[1] were called; in this case you can 29use the --track or --no-track options, which will be passed to `git 30branch`. As a convenience, --track without `-b` implies branch 31creation; see the description of --track below. 32 33'git checkout' [--patch] [<tree-ish>] [--] [<pathspec>...]:: 34 35 When <paths> or --patch are given, this command does *not* switch 36 branches. It updates the named paths in the working tree from 37 the index file, or from a named <tree-ish> (most often a commit). In 38 this case, the `-b` and `--track` options are meaningless and giving 39 either of them results in an error. The <tree-ish> argument can be 40 used to specify a specific tree-ish (i.e. commit, tag or tree) 41 to update the index for the given paths before updating the 42 working tree. 43+ 44The index may contain unmerged entries after a failed merge. By 45default, if you try to check out such an entry from the index, the 46checkout operation will fail and nothing will be checked out. 47Using -f will ignore these unmerged entries. The contents from a 48specific side of the merge can be checked out of the index by 49using --ours or --theirs. With -m, changes made to the working tree 50file can be discarded to recreate the original conflicted merge result. 51 52OPTIONS 53------- 54-q:: 55--quiet:: 56 Quiet, suppress feedback messages. 57 58-f:: 59--force:: 60 When switching branches, proceed even if the index or the 61 working tree differs from HEAD. This is used to throw away 62 local changes. 63+ 64When checking out paths from the index, do not fail upon unmerged 65entries; instead, unmerged entries are ignored. 66 67--ours:: 68--theirs:: 69 When checking out paths from the index, check out stage #2 70 ('ours') or #3 ('theirs') for unmerged paths. 71 72-b:: 73 Create a new branch named <new_branch> and start it at 74 <start_point>; see linkgit:git-branch[1] for details. 75 76-t:: 77--track:: 78 When creating a new branch, set up "upstream" configuration. See 79 "--track" in linkgit:git-branch[1] for details. 80+ 81If no '-b' option is given, the name of the new branch will be 82derived from the remote branch. If "remotes/" or "refs/remotes/" 83is prefixed it is stripped away, and then the part up to the 84next slash (which would be the nickname of the remote) is removed. 85This would tell us to use "hack" as the local branch when branching 86off of "origin/hack" (or "remotes/origin/hack", or even 87"refs/remotes/origin/hack"). If the given name has no slash, or the above 88guessing results in an empty name, the guessing is aborted. You can 89explicitly give a name with '-b' in such a case. 90 91--no-track:: 92 Do not set up "upstream" configuration, even if the 93 branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable is true. 94 95-l:: 96 Create the new branch's reflog; see linkgit:git-branch[1] for 97 details. 98 99-m:: 100--merge:: 101 When switching branches, 102 if you have local modifications to one or more files that 103 are different between the current branch and the branch to 104 which you are switching, the command refuses to switch 105 branches in order to preserve your modifications in context. 106 However, with this option, a three-way merge between the current 107 branch, your working tree contents, and the new branch 108 is done, and you will be on the new branch. 109+ 110When a merge conflict happens, the index entries for conflicting 111paths are left unmerged, and you need to resolve the conflicts 112and mark the resolved paths with `git add` (or `git rm` if the merge 113should result in deletion of the path). 114+ 115When checking out paths from the index, this option lets you recreate 116the conflicted merge in the specified paths. 117 118--conflict=<style>:: 119 The same as --merge option above, but changes the way the 120 conflicting hunks are presented, overriding the 121 merge.conflictstyle configuration variable. Possible values are 122 "merge" (default) and "diff3" (in addition to what is shown by 123 "merge" style, shows the original contents). 124 125-p:: 126--patch:: 127 Interactively select hunks in the difference between the 128 <tree-ish> (or the index, if unspecified) and the working 129 tree. The chosen hunks are then applied in reverse to the 130 working tree (and if a <tree-ish> was specified, the index). 131+ 132This means that you can use `git checkout -p` to selectively discard 133edits from your current working tree. 134 135<branch>:: 136 Branch to checkout; if it refers to a branch (i.e., a name that, 137 when prepended with "refs/heads/", is a valid ref), then that 138 branch is checked out. Otherwise, if it refers to a valid 139 commit, your HEAD becomes "detached" and you are no longer on 140 any branch (see below for details). 141+ 142As a special case, the `"@\{-N\}"` syntax for the N-th last branch 143checks out the branch (instead of detaching). You may also specify 144`-` which is synonymous with `"@\{-1\}"`. 145 146<new_branch>:: 147 Name for the new branch. 148 149<start_point>:: 150 The name of a commit at which to start the new branch; see 151 linkgit:git-branch[1] for details. Defaults to HEAD. 152 153<tree-ish>:: 154 Tree to checkout from (when paths are given). If not specified, 155 the index will be used. 156 157 158 159Detached HEAD 160------------- 161 162It is sometimes useful to be able to 'checkout' a commit that is 163not at the tip of one of your branches. The most obvious 164example is to check out the commit at a tagged official release 165point, like this: 166 167------------ 168$ git checkout v2.6.18 169------------ 170 171Earlier versions of git did not allow this and asked you to 172create a temporary branch using the `-b` option, but starting from 173version 1.5.0, the above command 'detaches' your HEAD from the 174current branch and directly points at the commit named by the tag 175(`v2.6.18` in the example above). 176 177You can use all git commands while in this state. You can use 178`git reset --hard $othercommit` to further move around, for 179example. You can make changes and create a new commit on top of 180a detached HEAD. You can even create a merge by using `git 181merge $othercommit`. 182 183The state you are in while your HEAD is detached is not recorded 184by any branch (which is natural --- you are not on any branch). 185What this means is that you can discard your temporary commits 186and merges by switching back to an existing branch (e.g. `git 187checkout master`), and a later `git prune` or `git gc` would 188garbage-collect them. If you did this by mistake, you can ask 189the reflog for HEAD where you were, e.g. 190 191------------ 192$ git log -g -2 HEAD 193------------ 194 195 196EXAMPLES 197-------- 198 199. The following sequence checks out the `master` branch, reverts 200the `Makefile` to two revisions back, deletes hello.c by 201mistake, and gets it back from the index. 202+ 203------------ 204$ git checkout master <1> 205$ git checkout master~2 Makefile <2> 206$ rm -f hello.c 207$ git checkout hello.c <3> 208------------ 209+ 210<1> switch branch 211<2> take a file out of another commit 212<3> restore hello.c from the index 213+ 214If you have an unfortunate branch that is named `hello.c`, this 215step would be confused as an instruction to switch to that branch. 216You should instead write: 217+ 218------------ 219$ git checkout -- hello.c 220------------ 221 222. After working in the wrong branch, switching to the correct 223branch would be done using: 224+ 225------------ 226$ git checkout mytopic 227------------ 228+ 229However, your "wrong" branch and correct "mytopic" branch may 230differ in files that you have modified locally, in which case 231the above checkout would fail like this: 232+ 233------------ 234$ git checkout mytopic 235fatal: Entry 'frotz' not uptodate. Cannot merge. 236------------ 237+ 238You can give the `-m` flag to the command, which would try a 239three-way merge: 240+ 241------------ 242$ git checkout -m mytopic 243Auto-merging frotz 244------------ 245+ 246After this three-way merge, the local modifications are _not_ 247registered in your index file, so `git diff` would show you what 248changes you made since the tip of the new branch. 249 250. When a merge conflict happens during switching branches with 251the `-m` option, you would see something like this: 252+ 253------------ 254$ git checkout -m mytopic 255Auto-merging frotz 256ERROR: Merge conflict in frotz 257fatal: merge program failed 258------------ 259+ 260At this point, `git diff` shows the changes cleanly merged as in 261the previous example, as well as the changes in the conflicted 262files. Edit and resolve the conflict and mark it resolved with 263`git add` as usual: 264+ 265------------ 266$ edit frotz 267$ git add frotz 268------------ 269 270 271Author 272------ 273Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 274 275Documentation 276-------------- 277Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 278 279GIT 280--- 281Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite