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] [-v [--abbrev=<length>]] 12'git-branch' [-l] [-f] <branchname> [<start-point>] 13'git-branch' (-m | -M) [<oldbranch>] <newbranch> 14'git-branch' (-d | -D) [-r] <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. Use -r together with -d 37to delete remote-tracking branches. 38 39 40OPTIONS 41------- 42-d:: 43 Delete a branch. The branch must be fully merged. 44 45-D:: 46 Delete a branch irrespective of its index status. 47 48-l:: 49 Create the branch's ref log. This activates recording of 50 all changes to made the branch ref, enabling use of date 51 based sha1 expressions such as "<branchname>@{yesterday}". 52 53-f:: 54 Force the creation of a new branch even if it means deleting 55 a branch that already exists with the same name. 56 57-m:: 58 Move/rename a branch and the corresponding reflog. 59 60-M:: 61 Move/rename a branch even if the new branchname already exists. 62 63--color:: 64 Color branches to highlight current, local, and remote branches. 65 66--no-color:: 67 Turn off branch colors, even when the configuration file gives the 68 default to color output. 69 70-r:: 71 List or delete (if used with -d) the remote-tracking branches. 72 73-a:: 74 List both remote-tracking branches and local branches. 75 76-v:: 77 Show sha1 and commit subjectline for each head. 78 79--abbrev=<length>:: 80 Alter minimum display length for sha1 in output listing, 81 default value is 7. 82 83<branchname>:: 84 The name of the branch to create or delete. 85 The new branch name must pass all checks defined by 86 gitlink:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 87 may restrict the characters allowed in a branch name. 88 89<start-point>:: 90 The new branch will be created with a HEAD equal to this. It may 91 be given as a branch name, a commit-id, or a tag. If this option 92 is omitted, the current branch is assumed. 93 94<oldbranch>:: 95 The name of an existing branch to rename. 96 97<newbranch>:: 98 The new name for an existing branch. The same restrictions as for 99 <branchname> applies. 100 101 102Examples 103-------- 104 105Start development off of a known tag:: 106+ 107------------ 108$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 109$ cd my2.6 110$ git branch my2.6.14 v2.6.14 <1> 111$ git checkout my2.6.14 112------------ 113+ 114<1> This step and the next one could be combined into a single step with 115"checkout -b my2.6.14 v2.6.14". 116 117Delete unneeded branch:: 118+ 119------------ 120$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/.../git.git my.git 121$ cd my.git 122$ git branch -d -r todo html man <1> 123$ git branch -D test <2> 124------------ 125+ 126<1> delete remote-tracking branches "todo", "html", "man" 127<2> delete "test" branch even if the "master" branch does not have all 128commits from todo branch. 129 130 131Notes 132----- 133 134If you are creating a branch that you want to immediately checkout, it's 135easier to use the git checkout command with its `-b` option to create 136a branch and check it out with a single command. 137 138 139Author 140------ 141Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> 142 143Documentation 144-------------- 145Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 146 147GIT 148--- 149Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite 150