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' (-m | -M) [<oldbranch>] <newbranch> 14'git-branch' (-d | -D) <branchname>... 15 16DESCRIPTION 17----------- 18With no arguments given a list of existing branches 19will be shown, the current branch will be highlighted with an asterisk. 20Option `-r` causes the remote-tracking branches to be listed, 21and option `-a` shows both. 22 23In its second form, a new branch named <branchname> will be created. 24It will start out with a head equal to the one given as <start-point>. 25If no <start-point> is given, the branch will be created with a head 26equal to that of the currently checked out branch. 27 28With a '-m' or '-M' option, <oldbranch> will be renamed to <newbranch>. 29If <oldbranch> had a corresponding reflog, it is renamed to match 30<newbranch>, and a reflog entry is created to remember the branch 31renaming. If <newbranch> exists, -M must be used to force the rename 32to happen. 33 34With a `-d` or `-D` option, `<branchname>` will be deleted. You may 35specify more than one branch for deletion. If the branch currently 36has a ref log then the ref log will also be deleted. 37 38 39OPTIONS 40------- 41-d:: 42 Delete a branch. The branch must be fully merged. 43 44-D:: 45 Delete a branch irrespective of its index status. 46 47-l:: 48 Create the branch's ref log. This activates recording of 49 all changes to made the branch ref, enabling use of date 50 based sha1 expressions such as "<branchname>@{yesterday}". 51 52-f:: 53 Force the creation of a new branch even if it means deleting 54 a branch that already exists with the same name. 55 56-m:: 57 Move/rename a branch and the corresponding reflog. 58 59-M:: 60 Move/rename a branch even if the new branchname already exists. 61 62-r:: 63 List the remote-tracking branches. 64 65-a:: 66 List both remote-tracking branches and local branches. 67 68-v:: 69 Show sha1 and commit subjectline for each head. 70 71--abbrev=<length>:: 72 Alter minimum display length for sha1 in output listing, 73 default value is 7. 74 75<branchname>:: 76 The name of the branch to create or delete. 77 The new branch name must pass all checks defined by 78 gitlink:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 79 may restrict the characters allowed in a branch name. 80 81<start-point>:: 82 The new branch will be created with a HEAD equal to this. It may 83 be given as a branch name, a commit-id, or a tag. If this option 84 is omitted, the current branch is assumed. 85 86<oldbranch>:: 87 The name of an existing branch to rename. 88 89<newbranch>:: 90 The new name for an existing branch. The same restrictions as for 91 <branchname> applies. 92 93 94Examples 95-------- 96 97Start development off of a known tag:: 98+ 99------------ 100$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 101$ cd my2.6 102$ git branch my2.6.14 v2.6.14 <1> 103$ git checkout my2.6.14 104------------ 105+ 106<1> This step and the next one could be combined into a single step with 107"checkout -b my2.6.14 v2.6.14". 108 109Delete unneeded branch:: 110+ 111------------ 112$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/.../git.git my.git 113$ cd my.git 114$ git branch -D todo <1> 115------------ 116+ 117<1> delete todo branch even if the "master" branch does not have all 118commits from todo branch. 119 120 121Notes 122----- 123 124If you are creating a branch that you want to immediately checkout, it's 125easier to use the git checkout command with its `-b` option to create 126a branch and check it out with a single command. 127 128 129Author 130------ 131Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> 132 133Documentation 134-------------- 135Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 136 137GIT 138--- 139Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite 140