1git-switch(1) 2============= 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-switch - Switch branches 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'git switch' [<options>] [--no-guess] <branch> 12'git switch' [<options>] --detach [<start-point>] 13'git switch' [<options>] (-c|-C) <new-branch> [<start-point>] 14'git switch' [<options>] --orphan <new-branch> 15 16DESCRIPTION 17----------- 18Switch to a specified branch. The working tree and the index are 19updated to match the branch. All new commits will be added to the tip 20of this branch. 21 22Optionally a new branch could be created with either `-c`, `-C`, 23automatically from a remote branch of same name (see `--guess`), or 24detach the working tree from any branch with `--detach`, along with 25switching. 26 27Switching branches does not require a clean index and working tree 28(i.e. no differences compared to `HEAD`). The operation is aborted 29however if the operation leads to loss of local changes, unless told 30otherwise with `--discard-changes` or `--merge`. 31 32THIS COMMAND IS EXPERIMENTAL. THE BEHAVIOR MAY CHANGE. 33 34OPTIONS 35------- 36<branch>:: 37 Branch to switch to. 38 39<new-branch>:: 40 Name for the new branch. 41 42<start-point>:: 43 The starting point for the new branch. Specifying a 44 `<start-point>` allows you to create a branch based on some 45 other point in history than where HEAD currently points. (Or, 46 in the case of `--detach`, allows you to inspect and detach 47 from some other point.) 48+ 49You can use the `@{-N}` syntax to refer to the N-th last 50branch/commit switched to using "git switch" or "git checkout" 51operation. You may also specify `-` which is synonymous to `@{-1}`. 52This is often used to switch quickly between two branches, or to undo 53a branch switch by mistake. 54+ 55As a special case, you may use `A...B` as a shortcut for the merge 56base of `A` and `B` if there is exactly one merge base. You can leave 57out at most one of `A` and `B`, in which case it defaults to `HEAD`. 58 59-c <new-branch>:: 60--create <new-branch>:: 61 Create a new branch named `<new-branch>` starting at 62 `<start-point>` before switching to the branch. This is a 63 convenient shortcut for: 64+ 65------------ 66$ git branch <new-branch> 67$ git switch <new-branch> 68------------ 69 70-C <new-branch>:: 71--force-create <new-branch>:: 72 Similar to `--create` except that if `<new-branch>` already 73 exists, it will be reset to `<start-point>`. This is a 74 convenient shortcut for: 75+ 76------------ 77$ git branch -f <new-branch> 78$ git switch <new-branch> 79------------ 80 81-d:: 82--detach:: 83 Switch to a commit for inspection and discardable 84 experiments. See the "DETACHED HEAD" section in 85 linkgit:git-checkout[1] for details. 86 87--guess:: 88--no-guess:: 89 If `<branch>` is not found but there does exist a tracking 90 branch in exactly one remote (call it `<remote>`) with a 91 matching name, treat as equivalent to 92+ 93------------ 94$ git switch -c <branch> --track <remote>/<branch> 95------------ 96+ 97If the branch exists in multiple remotes and one of them is named by 98the `checkout.defaultRemote` configuration variable, we'll use that 99one for the purposes of disambiguation, even if the `<branch>` isn't 100unique across all remotes. Set it to e.g. `checkout.defaultRemote=origin` 101to always checkout remote branches from there if `<branch>` is 102ambiguous but exists on the 'origin' remote. See also 103`checkout.defaultRemote` in linkgit:git-config[1]. 104+ 105`--guess` is the default behavior. Use `--no-guess` to disable it. 106 107-f:: 108--force:: 109 An alias for `--discard-changes`. 110 111--discard-changes:: 112 Proceed even if the index or the working tree differs from 113 `HEAD`. Both the index and working tree are restored to match 114 the switching target. If `--recurse-submodules` is specified, 115 submodule content is also restored to match the switching 116 target. This is used to throw away local changes. 117 118-m:: 119--merge:: 120 If you have local modifications to one or more files that are 121 different between the current branch and the branch to which 122 you are switching, the command refuses to switch branches in 123 order to preserve your modifications in context. However, 124 with this option, a three-way merge between the current 125 branch, your working tree contents, and the new branch is 126 done, and you will be on the new branch. 127+ 128When a merge conflict happens, the index entries for conflicting 129paths are left unmerged, and you need to resolve the conflicts 130and mark the resolved paths with `git add` (or `git rm` if the merge 131should result in deletion of the path). 132 133--conflict=<style>:: 134 The same as `--merge` option above, but changes the way the 135 conflicting hunks are presented, overriding the 136 `merge.conflictStyle` configuration variable. Possible values are 137 "merge" (default) and "diff3" (in addition to what is shown by 138 "merge" style, shows the original contents). 139 140-q:: 141--quiet:: 142 Quiet, suppress feedback messages. 143 144--progress:: 145--no-progress:: 146 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream 147 by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless `--quiet` 148 is specified. This flag enables progress reporting even if not 149 attached to a terminal, regardless of `--quiet`. 150 151-t:: 152--track:: 153 When creating a new branch, set up "upstream" configuration. 154 `-c` is implied. See `--track` in linkgit:git-branch[1] for 155 details. 156+ 157If no `-c` option is given, the name of the new branch will be derived 158from the remote-tracking branch, by looking at the local part of the 159refspec configured for the corresponding remote, and then stripping 160the initial part up to the "*". This would tell us to use `hack` as 161the local branch when branching off of `origin/hack` (or 162`remotes/origin/hack`, or even `refs/remotes/origin/hack`). If the 163given name has no slash, or the above guessing results in an empty 164name, the guessing is aborted. You can explicitly give a name with 165`-c` in such a case. 166 167--no-track:: 168 Do not set up "upstream" configuration, even if the 169 `branch.autoSetupMerge` configuration variable is true. 170 171--orphan <new-branch>:: 172 Create a new 'orphan' branch, named `<new-branch>`. All 173 tracked files are removed. 174 175--ignore-other-worktrees:: 176 `git switch` refuses when the wanted ref is already 177 checked out by another worktree. This option makes it check 178 the ref out anyway. In other words, the ref can be held by 179 more than one worktree. 180 181--recurse-submodules:: 182--no-recurse-submodules:: 183 Using `--recurse-submodules` will update the content of all 184 initialized submodules according to the commit recorded in the 185 superproject. If nothing (or `--no-recurse-submodules`) is 186 used, the work trees of submodules will not be updated. Just 187 like linkgit:git-submodule[1], this will detach `HEAD` of the 188 submodules. 189 190EXAMPLES 191-------- 192 193The following command switches to the "master" branch: 194 195------------ 196$ git switch master 197------------ 198 199After working in the wrong branch, switching to the correct branch 200would be done using: 201 202------------ 203$ git switch mytopic 204------------ 205 206However, your "wrong" branch and correct "mytopic" branch may differ 207in files that you have modified locally, in which case the above 208switch would fail like this: 209 210------------ 211$ git switch mytopic 212error: You have local changes to 'frotz'; not switching branches. 213------------ 214 215You can give the `-m` flag to the command, which would try a three-way 216merge: 217 218------------ 219$ git switch -m mytopic 220Auto-merging frotz 221------------ 222 223After this three-way merge, the local modifications are _not_ 224registered in your index file, so `git diff` would show you what 225changes you made since the tip of the new branch. 226 227To switch back to the previous branch before we switched to mytopic 228(i.e. "master" branch): 229 230------------ 231$ git switch - 232------------ 233 234You can grow a new branch from any commit. For example, switch to 235"HEAD~3" and create branch "fixup": 236 237------------ 238$ git switch -c fixup HEAD~3 239Switched to a new branch 'fixup' 240------------ 241 242If you want to start a new branch from a remote branch of the same 243name: 244 245------------ 246$ git switch new-topic 247Branch 'new-topic' set up to track remote branch 'new-topic' from 'origin' 248Switched to a new branch 'new-topic' 249------------ 250 251To check out commit `HEAD~3` for temporary inspection or experiment 252without creating a new branch: 253 254------------ 255$ git switch --detach HEAD~3 256HEAD is now at 9fc9555312 Merge branch 'cc/shared-index-permbits' 257------------ 258 259If it turns out whatever you have done is worth keeping, you can 260always create a new name for it (without switching away): 261 262------------ 263$ git switch -c good-surprises 264------------ 265 266SEE ALSO 267-------- 268linkgit:git-checkout[1], 269linkgit:git-branch[1] 270 271GIT 272--- 273Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite