SYNOPSIS
--------
[verse]
-'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [[--track | --no-track] -b <new_branch> [-l]] [-m] [<branch>]
-'git checkout' [-f|--ours|--theirs|-m] [<tree-ish>] [--] <paths>...
+'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [<branch>]
+'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [-b <new_branch>] [<start_point>]
+'git checkout' [-f|--ours|--theirs|-m|--conflict=<style>] [<tree-ish>] [--] <paths>...
+'git checkout' --patch [<tree-ish>] [--] [<paths>...]
DESCRIPTION
-----------
When <paths> are not given, this command switches branches by
-updating the index and working tree to reflect the specified
-branch, <branch>, and updating HEAD to be <branch> or, if
-specified, <new_branch>. Using -b will cause <new_branch> to
-be created; in this case you can use the --track or --no-track
-options, which will be passed to `git branch`.
+updating the index, working tree, and HEAD to reflect the specified
+branch.
-When <paths> are given, this command does *not* switch
+If `-b` is given, a new branch is created and checked out, as if
+linkgit:git-branch[1] were called; in this case you can
+use the --track or --no-track options, which will be passed to `git
+branch`. As a convenience, --track without `-b` implies branch
+creation; see the description of --track below.
+
+When <paths> or --patch are given, this command does *not* switch
branches. It updates the named paths in the working tree from
-the index file, or from a named commit. In
-this case, the `-b` options is meaningless and giving
-either of them results in an error. <tree-ish> argument can be
+the index file, or from a named <tree-ish> (most often a commit). In
+this case, the `-b` and `--track` options are meaningless and giving
+either of them results in an error. The <tree-ish> argument can be
used to specify a specific tree-ish (i.e. commit, tag or tree)
to update the index for the given paths before updating the
working tree.
OPTIONS
-------
-q::
+--quiet::
Quiet, suppress feedback messages.
-f::
+--force::
When switching branches, proceed even if the index or the
working tree differs from HEAD. This is used to throw away
local changes.
-b::
Create a new branch named <new_branch> and start it at
- <branch>. The new branch name must pass all checks defined
- by linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks
- may restrict the characters allowed in a branch name.
+ <start_point>; see linkgit:git-branch[1] for details.
-t::
--track::
- When creating a new branch, set up configuration so that 'git-pull'
- will automatically retrieve data from the start point, which must be
- a branch. Use this if you always pull from the same upstream branch
- into the new branch, and if you don't want to use "git pull
- <repository> <refspec>" explicitly. This behavior is the default
- when the start point is a remote branch. Set the
- branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable to `false` if you want
- 'git-checkout' and 'git-branch' to always behave as if '--no-track' were
- given. Set it to `always` if you want this behavior when the
- start-point is either a local or remote branch.
+ When creating a new branch, set up "upstream" configuration. See
+ "--track" in linkgit:git-branch[1] for details.
++
+If no '-b' option is given, the name of the new branch will be
+derived from the remote branch. If "remotes/" or "refs/remotes/"
+is prefixed it is stripped away, and then the part up to the
+next slash (which would be the nickname of the remote) is removed.
+This would tell us to use "hack" as the local branch when branching
+off of "origin/hack" (or "remotes/origin/hack", or even
+"refs/remotes/origin/hack"). If the given name has no slash, or the above
+guessing results in an empty name, the guessing is aborted. You can
+explicitly give a name with '-b' in such a case.
--no-track::
- Ignore the branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable.
+ Do not set up "upstream" configuration, even if the
+ branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable is true.
-l::
- Create the new branch's reflog. This activates recording of
- all changes made to the branch ref, enabling use of date
- based sha1 expressions such as "<branchname>@\{yesterday}".
+ Create the new branch's reflog; see linkgit:git-branch[1] for
+ details.
-m::
+--merge::
When switching branches,
if you have local modifications to one or more files that
are different between the current branch and the branch to
When checking out paths from the index, this option lets you recreate
the conflicted merge in the specified paths.
-<new_branch>::
- Name for the new branch.
+--conflict=<style>::
+ The same as --merge option above, but changes the way the
+ conflicting hunks are presented, overriding the
+ merge.conflictstyle configuration variable. Possible values are
+ "merge" (default) and "diff3" (in addition to what is shown by
+ "merge" style, shows the original contents).
+
+-p::
+--patch::
+ Interactively select hunks in the difference between the
+ <tree-ish> (or the index, if unspecified) and the working
+ tree. The chosen hunks are then applied in reverse to the
+ working tree (and if a <tree-ish> was specified, the index).
++
+This means that you can use `git checkout -p` to selectively discard
+edits from your current working tree.
<branch>::
- Branch to checkout; may be any object ID that resolves to a
- commit. Defaults to HEAD.
+ Branch to checkout; if it refers to a branch (i.e., a name that,
+ when prepended with "refs/heads/", is a valid ref), then that
+ branch is checked out. Otherwise, if it refers to a valid
+ commit, your HEAD becomes "detached" and you are no longer on
+ any branch (see below for details).
+
-When this parameter names a non-branch (but still a valid commit object),
-your HEAD becomes 'detached'.
+As a special case, the `"@\{-N\}"` syntax for the N-th last branch
+checks out the branch (instead of detaching). You may also specify
+`-` which is synonymous with `"@\{-1\}"`.
+
+<new_branch>::
+ Name for the new branch.
+
+<start_point>::
+ The name of a commit at which to start the new branch; see
+ linkgit:git-branch[1] for details. Defaults to HEAD.
+
+<tree-ish>::
+ Tree to checkout from (when paths are given). If not specified,
+ the index will be used.
+
Detached HEAD
------------
Earlier versions of git did not allow this and asked you to
-create a temporary branch using `-b` option, but starting from
+create a temporary branch using the `-b` option, but starting from
version 1.5.0, the above command 'detaches' your HEAD from the
-current branch and directly point at the commit named by the tag
-(`v2.6.18` in the above example).
+current branch and directly points at the commit named by the tag
+(`v2.6.18` in the example above).
-You can use usual git commands while in this state. You can use
+You can use all git commands while in this state. You can use
`git reset --hard $othercommit` to further move around, for
example. You can make changes and create a new commit on top of
a detached HEAD. You can even create a merge by using `git
------------
+
<1> switch branch
-<2> take out a file out of other commit
-<3> restore hello.c from HEAD of current branch
+<2> take a file out of another commit
+<3> restore hello.c from the index
+
If you have an unfortunate branch that is named `hello.c`, this
step would be confused as an instruction to switch to that branch.
$ git checkout -- hello.c
------------
-. After working in a wrong branch, switching to the correct
+. After working in the wrong branch, switching to the correct
branch would be done using:
+
------------
------------
+
However, your "wrong" branch and correct "mytopic" branch may
-differ in files that you have locally modified, in which case,
+differ in files that you have modified locally, in which case
the above checkout would fail like this:
+
------------
------------
$ git checkout -m mytopic
Auto-merging frotz
-merge: warning: conflicts during merge
ERROR: Merge conflict in frotz
fatal: merge program failed
------------