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] [-b [--track | --no-track] <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, supress 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 setup so that git-pull will automatically retrieve data from 53 the remote branch. 54 55--no-track:: 56 When -b is given and a branch is created off a remote branch, 57 force that git-pull will automatically retrieve data from 58 the remote branch independent of the configuration settings. 59 60-l:: 61 Create the new branch's ref log. This activates recording of 62 all changes to made the branch ref, enabling use of date 63 based sha1 expressions such as "<branchname>@{yesterday}". 64 65-m:: 66 If you have local modifications to one or more files that 67 are different between the current branch and the branch to 68 which you are switching, the command refuses to switch 69 branches in order to preserve your modifications in context. 70 However, with this option, a three-way merge between the current 71 branch, your working tree contents, and the new branch 72 is done, and you will be on the new branch. 73+ 74When a merge conflict happens, the index entries for conflicting 75paths are left unmerged, and you need to resolve the conflicts 76and mark the resolved paths with `git add` (or `git rm` if the merge 77should result in deletion of the path). 78 79<new_branch>:: 80 Name for the new branch. 81 82<branch>:: 83 Branch to checkout; may be any object ID that resolves to a 84 commit. Defaults to HEAD. 85+ 86When this parameter names a non-branch (but still a valid commit object), 87your HEAD becomes 'detached'. 88 89 90Detached HEAD 91------------- 92 93It is sometimes useful to be able to 'checkout' a commit that is 94not at the tip of one of your branches. The most obvious 95example is to check out the commit at a tagged official release 96point, like this: 97 98------------ 99$ git checkout v2.6.18 100------------ 101 102Earlier versions of git did not allow this and asked you to 103create a temporary branch using `-b` option, but starting from 104version 1.5.0, the above command 'detaches' your HEAD from the 105current branch and directly point at the commit named by the tag 106(`v2.6.18` in the above example). 107 108You can use usual git commands while in this state. You can use 109`git-reset --hard $othercommit` to further move around, for 110example. You can make changes and create a new commit on top of 111a detached HEAD. You can even create a merge by using `git 112merge $othercommit`. 113 114The state you are in while your HEAD is detached is not recorded 115by any branch (which is natural --- you are not on any branch). 116What this means is that you can discard your temporary commits 117and merges by switching back to an existing branch (e.g. `git 118checkout master`), and a later `git prune` or `git gc` would 119garbage-collect them. If you did this by mistake, you can ask 120the reflog for HEAD where you were, e.g. 121 122------------ 123$ git log -g -2 HEAD 124------------ 125 126 127EXAMPLES 128-------- 129 130. The following sequence checks out the `master` branch, reverts 131the `Makefile` to two revisions back, deletes hello.c by 132mistake, and gets it back from the index. 133+ 134------------ 135$ git checkout master <1> 136$ git checkout master~2 Makefile <2> 137$ rm -f hello.c 138$ git checkout hello.c <3> 139------------ 140+ 141<1> switch branch 142<2> take out a file out of other commit 143<3> restore hello.c from HEAD of current branch 144+ 145If you have an unfortunate branch that is named `hello.c`, this 146step would be confused as an instruction to switch to that branch. 147You should instead write: 148+ 149------------ 150$ git checkout -- hello.c 151------------ 152 153. After working in a wrong branch, switching to the correct 154branch would be done using: 155+ 156------------ 157$ git checkout mytopic 158------------ 159+ 160However, your "wrong" branch and correct "mytopic" branch may 161differ in files that you have locally modified, in which case, 162the above checkout would fail like this: 163+ 164------------ 165$ git checkout mytopic 166fatal: Entry 'frotz' not uptodate. Cannot merge. 167------------ 168+ 169You can give the `-m` flag to the command, which would try a 170three-way merge: 171+ 172------------ 173$ git checkout -m mytopic 174Auto-merging frotz 175------------ 176+ 177After this three-way merge, the local modifications are _not_ 178registered in your index file, so `git diff` would show you what 179changes you made since the tip of the new branch. 180 181. When a merge conflict happens during switching branches with 182the `-m` option, you would see something like this: 183+ 184------------ 185$ git checkout -m mytopic 186Auto-merging frotz 187merge: warning: conflicts during merge 188ERROR: Merge conflict in frotz 189fatal: merge program failed 190------------ 191+ 192At this point, `git diff` shows the changes cleanly merged as in 193the previous example, as well as the changes in the conflicted 194files. Edit and resolve the conflict and mark it resolved with 195`git add` as usual: 196+ 197------------ 198$ edit frotz 199$ git add frotz 200------------ 201 202 203Author 204------ 205Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 206 207Documentation 208-------------- 209Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 210 211GIT 212--- 213Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite 214