--------
[verse]
'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [<branch>]
+'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [--detach] [<commit>]
'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [[-b|-B|--orphan] <new_branch>] [<start_point>]
'git checkout' [-f|--ours|--theirs|-m|--conflict=<style>] [<tree-ish>] [--] <paths>...
-'git checkout' --patch [<tree-ish>] [--] [<paths>...]
+'git checkout' [-p|--patch] [<tree-ish>] [--] [<paths>...]
DESCRIPTION
-----------
'git checkout' [<branch>]::
'git checkout' -b|-B <new_branch> [<start point>]::
+'git checkout' [--detach] [<commit>]::
This form switches branches by updating the index, working
- tree, and HEAD to reflect the specified branch.
+ tree, and HEAD to reflect the specified branch or commit.
+
If `-b` is given, a new branch is created as if linkgit:git-branch[1]
were called and then checked out; in this case you can
that is to say, the branch is not reset/created unless "git checkout" is
successful.
-'git checkout' [--patch] [<tree-ish>] [--] <pathspec>...::
+'git checkout' [-p|--patch] [<tree-ish>] [--] <pathspec>...::
When <paths> or `--patch` are given, 'git checkout' does *not*
switch branches. It updates the named paths in the working tree
Create the new branch's reflog; see linkgit:git-branch[1] for
details.
+--detach::
+ Rather than checking out a branch to work on it, check out a
+ commit for inspection and discardable experiments.
+ This is the default behavior of "git checkout <commit>" when
+ <commit> is not a branch name. See the "DETACHED HEAD" section
+ below for details.
+
--orphan::
Create a new 'orphan' branch, named <new_branch>, started from
<start_point> and switch to it. The first commit made on this
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.
+edits from your current working tree. See the ``Interactive Mode''
+section of linkgit:git-add[1] to learn how to operate the `\--patch` mode.
<branch>::
Branch to checkout; if it refers to a branch (i.e., a name that,
-Detached HEAD
+DETACHED HEAD
-------------
HEAD normally refers to a named branch (e.g. 'master'). Meanwhile, each
branch refers to a specific commit. Let's look at a repo with three
$ git add frotz
------------
-
-Author
-------
-Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
-
-Documentation
---------------
-Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
-
GIT
---
Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite