6 git-checkout - Checkout and switch to a branch
11 'git-checkout' [-q] [-f] [-b <new_branch> [-l]] [-m] [<branch>]
12 'git-checkout' [<tree-ish>] <paths>...
17 When <paths> are not given, this command switches branches by
18 updating the index and working tree to reflect the specified
19 branch, <branch>, and updating HEAD to be <branch> or, if
20 specified, <new_branch>. Using -b will cause <new_branch> to
23 When <paths> are given, this command does *not* switch
24 branches. It updates the named paths in the working tree from
25 the index file (i.e. it runs `git-checkout-index -f -u`), or a
27 this case, `-f` and `-b` options are meaningless and giving
28 either of them results in an error. <tree-ish> argument can be
29 used to specify a specific tree-ish (i.e. commit, tag or tree)
30 to update the index for the given paths before updating the
37 Quiet, supress feedback messages.
40 Force a re-read of everything.
43 Create a new branch named <new_branch> and start it at
44 <branch>. The new branch name must pass all checks defined
45 by gitlink:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks
46 may restrict the characters allowed in a branch name.
49 Create the new 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}".
54 If you have local modifications to one or more files that
55 are different between the current branch and the branch to
56 which you are switching, the command refuses to switch
57 branches in order to preserve your modifications in context.
58 However, with this option, a three-way merge between the current
59 branch, your working tree contents, and the new branch
60 is done, and you will be on the new branch.
62 When a merge conflict happens, the index entries for conflicting
63 paths are left unmerged, and you need to resolve the conflicts
64 and mark the resolved paths with `git update-index`.
67 Name for the new branch.
70 Branch to checkout; may be any object ID that resolves to a
71 commit. Defaults to HEAD.
73 When this parameter names a non-branch (but still a valid commit object),
74 your HEAD becomes 'detached'.
80 It is sometimes useful to be able to 'checkout' a commit that is
81 not at the tip of one of your branches. The most obvious
82 example is to check out the commit at a tagged official release
86 $ git checkout v2.6.18
89 Earlier versions of git did not allow this and asked you to
90 create a temporary branch using `-b` option, but starting from
91 version 1.5.0, the above command 'detaches' your HEAD from the
92 current branch and directly point at the commit named by the tag
93 (`v2.6.18` in the above example).
95 You can use usual git commands while in this state. You can use
96 `git-reset --hard $othercommit` to further move around, for
97 example. You can make changes and create a new commit on top of
98 a detached HEAD. You can even create a merge by using `git
101 The state you are in while your HEAD is detached is not recorded
102 by any branch (which is natural --- you are not on any branch).
103 What this means is that you can discard your temporary commits
104 and merges by switching back to an existing branch (e.g. `git
105 checkout master`), and a later `git prune` or `git gc` would
106 garbage-collect them. If you did this by mistake, you can ask
107 the reflog for HEAD where you were, e.g.
117 . The following sequence checks out the `master` branch, reverts
118 the `Makefile` to two revisions back, deletes hello.c by
119 mistake, and gets it back from the index.
122 $ git checkout master <1>
123 $ git checkout master~2 Makefile <2>
125 $ git checkout hello.c <3>
129 <2> take out a file out of other commit
130 <3> restore hello.c from HEAD of current branch
132 If you have an unfortunate branch that is named `hello.c`, this
133 step would be confused as an instruction to switch to that branch.
134 You should instead write:
137 $ git checkout -- hello.c
140 . After working in a wrong branch, switching to the correct
141 branch would be done using:
144 $ git checkout mytopic
147 However, your "wrong" branch and correct "mytopic" branch may
148 differ in files that you have locally modified, in which case,
149 the above checkout would fail like this:
152 $ git checkout mytopic
153 fatal: Entry 'frotz' not uptodate. Cannot merge.
156 You can give the `-m` flag to the command, which would try a
160 $ git checkout -m mytopic
164 After this three-way merge, the local modifications are _not_
165 registered in your index file, so `git diff` would show you what
166 changes you made since the tip of the new branch.
168 . When a merge conflict happens during switching branches with
169 the `-m` option, you would see something like this:
172 $ git checkout -m mytopic
174 merge: warning: conflicts during merge
175 ERROR: Merge conflict in frotz
176 fatal: merge program failed
179 At this point, `git diff` shows the changes cleanly merged as in
180 the previous example, as well as the changes in the conflicted
181 files. Edit and resolve the conflict and mark it resolved with
182 `git update-index` as usual:
186 $ git update-index frotz
192 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
196 Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
200 Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite