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 [--contains <commit>] 14'git-branch' [--track | --no-track] [-l] [-f] <branchname> [<start-point>] 15'git-branch' (-m | -M) [<oldbranch>] <newbranch> 16'git-branch' (-d | -D) [-r] <branchname>... 17 18DESCRIPTION 19----------- 20With no arguments given a list of existing branches 21will be shown, the current branch will be highlighted with an asterisk. 22Option `-r` causes the remote-tracking branches to be listed, 23and option `-a` shows both. 24With `--contains <commit>`, shows only the branches that 25contains the named commit (in other words, the branches whose 26tip commits are descendant of the named commit). 27 28In its second form, a new branch named <branchname> will be created. 29It will start out with a head equal to the one given as <start-point>. 30If no <start-point> is given, the branch will be created with a head 31equal to that of the currently checked out branch. 32 33Note that this will create the new branch, but it will not switch the 34working tree to it; use "git checkout <newbranch>" to switch to the 35new branch. 36 37When a local branch is started off a remote branch, git can setup the 38branch so that gitlink:git-pull[1] will appropriately merge from that 39remote branch. If this behavior is desired, it is possible to make it 40the default using the global `branch.autosetupmerge` configuration 41flag. Otherwise, it can be chosen per-branch using the `--track` 42and `--no-track` options. 43 44With a '-m' or '-M' option, <oldbranch> will be renamed to <newbranch>. 45If <oldbranch> had a corresponding reflog, it is renamed to match 46<newbranch>, and a reflog entry is created to remember the branch 47renaming. If <newbranch> exists, -M must be used to force the rename 48to happen. 49 50With a `-d` or `-D` option, `<branchname>` will be deleted. You may 51specify more than one branch for deletion. If the branch currently 52has a reflog then the reflog will also be deleted. 53 54Use -r together with -d to delete remote-tracking branches. Note, that it 55only makes sense to delete remote-tracking branches if they no longer exist 56in remote repository or if gitlink:git-fetch[1] was configured not to fetch 57them again. See also 'prune' subcommand of gitlink:git-remote[1] for way to 58clean up all obsolete remote-tracking branches. 59 60 61OPTIONS 62------- 63-d:: 64 Delete a branch. The branch must be fully merged in HEAD. 65 66-D:: 67 Delete a branch irrespective of its merged status. 68 69-l:: 70 Create the branch's reflog. This activates recording of 71 all changes made to the branch ref, enabling use of date 72 based sha1 expressions such as "<branchname>@\{yesterday}". 73 74-f:: 75 Force the creation of a new branch even if it means deleting 76 a branch that already exists with the same name. 77 78-m:: 79 Move/rename a branch and the corresponding reflog. 80 81-M:: 82 Move/rename a branch even if the new branchname already exists. 83 84--color:: 85 Color branches to highlight current, local, and remote branches. 86 87--no-color:: 88 Turn off branch colors, even when the configuration file gives the 89 default to color output. 90 91-r:: 92 List or delete (if used with -d) the remote-tracking branches. 93 94-a:: 95 List both remote-tracking branches and local branches. 96 97-v, --verbose:: 98 Show sha1 and commit subject line for each head. 99 100--abbrev=<length>:: 101 Alter minimum display length for sha1 in output listing, 102 default value is 7. 103 104--no-abbrev:: 105 Display the full sha1s in output listing rather than abbreviating them. 106 107--track:: 108 Set up configuration so that git-pull will automatically 109 retrieve data from the remote branch. Use this if you always 110 pull from the same remote branch into the new branch, or if you 111 don't want to use "git pull <repository> <refspec>" explicitly. Set the 112 branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable to true if you 113 want git-checkout and git-branch to always behave as if 114 '--track' were given. 115 116--no-track:: 117 When a branch is created off a remote branch, 118 set up configuration so that git-pull will not retrieve data 119 from the remote branch, ignoring the branch.autosetupmerge 120 configuration variable. 121 122<branchname>:: 123 The name of the branch to create or delete. 124 The new branch name must pass all checks defined by 125 gitlink:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 126 may restrict the characters allowed in a branch name. 127 128<start-point>:: 129 The new branch will be created with a HEAD equal to this. It may 130 be given as a branch name, a commit-id, or a tag. If this option 131 is omitted, the current branch is assumed. 132 133<oldbranch>:: 134 The name of an existing branch to rename. 135 136<newbranch>:: 137 The new name for an existing branch. The same restrictions as for 138 <branchname> applies. 139 140 141Examples 142-------- 143 144Start development off of a known tag:: 145+ 146------------ 147$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 148$ cd my2.6 149$ git branch my2.6.14 v2.6.14 <1> 150$ git checkout my2.6.14 151------------ 152+ 153<1> This step and the next one could be combined into a single step with 154"checkout -b my2.6.14 v2.6.14". 155 156Delete unneeded branch:: 157+ 158------------ 159$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/.../git.git my.git 160$ cd my.git 161$ git branch -d -r origin/todo origin/html origin/man <1> 162$ git branch -D test <2> 163------------ 164+ 165<1> Delete remote-tracking branches "todo", "html", "man". Next 'fetch' or 166'pull' will create them again unless you configure them not to. See 167gitlink:git-fetch[1]. 168<2> Delete "test" branch even if the "master" branch (or whichever branch is 169currently checked out) does not have all commits from test branch. 170 171 172Notes 173----- 174 175If you are creating a branch that you want to immediately checkout, it's 176easier to use the git checkout command with its `-b` option to create 177a branch and check it out with a single command. 178 179 180Author 181------ 182Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> 183 184Documentation 185-------------- 186Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 187 188GIT 189--- 190Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite