SYNOPSIS
--------
-'git-checkout' [-f] [-b <new_branch>] [<branch>]
+'git-checkout' [-f] [-b <new_branch>] [<branch>] [<paths>...]
DESCRIPTION
-----------
-Updates the index and working tree to reflect the specified branch,
-<branch>. Updates HEAD to be <branch> or, if specified, <new_branch>.
+
+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>.
+
+When <paths> are given, this command does *not* switch
+branches. It updates the named paths in the working tree from
+the index file (i.e. it runs `git-checkout-index -f -u`). In
+this case, `-f` and `-b` options are meaningless and giving
+either of them results in an error. <branch> argument can be
+used to specify a specific tree-ish to update the index for the
+given paths before updating the working tree.
+
OPTIONS
-------
Branch to checkout; may be any object ID that resolves to a
commit. Defaults to HEAD.
+
+EXAMPLE
+-------
+
+The following sequence checks out the `master` branch, reverts
+the `Makefile` to two revisions back, deletes hello.c by
+mistake, and gets it back from the index.
+
+------------
+$ git checkout master
+$ git checkout master~2 Makefile
+$ rm -f hello.c
+$ git checkout hello.c
+------------
+
+If you have an unfortunate branch that is named `hello.c`, the
+last step above would be confused as an instruction to switch to
+that branch. You should instead write:
+
+------------
+$ git checkout -- hello.c
+------------
+
+
Author
------
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>