1git-branch(1) 2============= 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-branch - List, create, or delete branches 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'git-branch' [--color | --no-color] [-r | -a] 12 [-v [--abbrev=<length> | --no-abbrev]] 13'git-branch' [--track | --no-track] [-l] [-f] <branchname> [<start-point>] 14'git-branch' (-m | -M) [<oldbranch>] <newbranch> 15'git-branch' (-d | -D) [-r] <branchname>... 16 17DESCRIPTION 18----------- 19With no arguments given a list of existing branches 20will be shown, the current branch will be highlighted with an asterisk. 21Option `-r` causes the remote-tracking branches to be listed, 22and option `-a` shows both. 23 24In its second form, a new branch named <branchname> will be created. 25It will start out with a head equal to the one given as <start-point>. 26If no <start-point> is given, the branch will be created with a head 27equal to that of the currently checked out branch. 28 29When a local branch is started off a remote branch, git can setup the 30branch so that gitlink:git-pull[1] will appropriately merge from that 31remote branch. If this behavior is desired, it is possible to make it 32the default using the global `branch.autosetupmerge` configuration 33flag. Otherwise, it can be chosen per-branch using the `--track` 34and `--no-track` options. 35 36With a '-m' or '-M' option, <oldbranch> will be renamed to <newbranch>. 37If <oldbranch> had a corresponding reflog, it is renamed to match 38<newbranch>, and a reflog entry is created to remember the branch 39renaming. If <newbranch> exists, -M must be used to force the rename 40to happen. 41 42With a `-d` or `-D` option, `<branchname>` will be deleted. You may 43specify more than one branch for deletion. If the branch currently 44has a reflog then the reflog will also be deleted. Use -r together with -d 45to delete remote-tracking branches. 46 47 48OPTIONS 49------- 50-d:: 51 Delete a branch. The branch must be fully merged. 52 53-D:: 54 Delete a branch irrespective of its index status. 55 56-l:: 57 Create the branch's reflog. This activates recording of 58 all changes made to the branch ref, enabling use of date 59 based sha1 expressions such as "<branchname>@\{yesterday}". 60 61-f:: 62 Force the creation of a new branch even if it means deleting 63 a branch that already exists with the same name. 64 65-m:: 66 Move/rename a branch and the corresponding reflog. 67 68-M:: 69 Move/rename a branch even if the new branchname already exists. 70 71--color:: 72 Color branches to highlight current, local, and remote branches. 73 74--no-color:: 75 Turn off branch colors, even when the configuration file gives the 76 default to color output. 77 78-r:: 79 List or delete (if used with -d) the remote-tracking branches. 80 81-a:: 82 List both remote-tracking branches and local branches. 83 84-v:: 85 Show sha1 and commit subject line for each head. 86 87--abbrev=<length>:: 88 Alter minimum display length for sha1 in output listing, 89 default value is 7. 90 91--no-abbrev:: 92 Display the full sha1s in output listing rather than abbreviating them. 93 94--track:: 95 Set up configuration so that git-pull will automatically 96 retrieve data from the remote branch. Use this if you always 97 pull from the same remote branch into the new branch, or if you 98 don't want to use "git pull <repository> <refspec>" explicitly. Set the 99 branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable to true if you 100 want git-checkout and git-branch to always behave as if 101 '--track' were given. 102 103--no-track:: 104 When -b is given and a branch is created off a remote branch, 105 set up configuration so that git-pull will not retrieve data 106 from the remote branch, ignoring the branch.autosetupmerge 107 configuration variable. 108 109<branchname>:: 110 The name of the branch to create or delete. 111 The new branch name must pass all checks defined by 112 gitlink:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 113 may restrict the characters allowed in a branch name. 114 115<start-point>:: 116 The new branch will be created with a HEAD equal to this. It may 117 be given as a branch name, a commit-id, or a tag. If this option 118 is omitted, the current branch is assumed. 119 120<oldbranch>:: 121 The name of an existing branch to rename. 122 123<newbranch>:: 124 The new name for an existing branch. The same restrictions as for 125 <branchname> applies. 126 127 128Examples 129-------- 130 131Start development off of a known tag:: 132+ 133------------ 134$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 135$ cd my2.6 136$ git branch my2.6.14 v2.6.14 <1> 137$ git checkout my2.6.14 138------------ 139+ 140<1> This step and the next one could be combined into a single step with 141"checkout -b my2.6.14 v2.6.14". 142 143Delete unneeded branch:: 144+ 145------------ 146$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/.../git.git my.git 147$ cd my.git 148$ git branch -d -r origin/todo origin/html origin/man <1> 149$ git branch -D test <2> 150------------ 151+ 152<1> Delete remote-tracking branches "todo", "html", "man" 153<2> Delete "test" branch even if the "master" branch does not have all 154commits from test branch. 155 156 157Notes 158----- 159 160If you are creating a branch that you want to immediately checkout, it's 161easier to use the git checkout command with its `-b` option to create 162a branch and check it out with a single command. 163 164 165Author 166------ 167Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> 168 169Documentation 170-------------- 171Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 172 173GIT 174--- 175Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite