1GIT-SWITCH(1) Git Manual GIT-SWITCH(1)
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6 git-switch - Switch branches
7
9 git switch [<options>] [--no-guess] <branch>
10 git switch [<options>] --detach [<start-point>]
11 git switch [<options>] (-c|-C) <new-branch> [<start-point>]
12 git switch [<options>] --orphan <new-branch>
13
15 Switch to a specified branch. The working tree and the index are
16 updated to match the branch. All new commits will be added to the tip
17 of this branch.
18 Optionally a new branch could be created with either -c, -C,
20 automatically from a remote branch of same name (see --guess), or
21 detach the working tree from any branch with --detach, along with
22 switching.
23 Switching branches does not require a clean index and working tree
25 (i.e. no differences compared to HEAD). The operation is aborted
26 however if the operation leads to loss of local changes, unless told
27 otherwise with --discard-changes or --merge.
28 THIS COMMAND IS EXPERIMENTAL. THE BEHAVIOR MAY CHANGE.
30
32 <branch>
33 Branch to switch to.
34 <new-branch>
36 Name for the new branch.
37 <start-point>
39 The starting point for the new branch. Specifying a <start-point>
40 allows you to create a branch based on some other point in history
41 than where HEAD currently points. (Or, in the case of --detach,
42 allows you to inspect and detach from some other point.)
43 You can use the @{-N} syntax to refer to the N-th last
45 branch/commit switched to using "git switch" or "git checkout"
46 operation. You may also specify - which is synonymous to @{-1}.
47 This is often used to switch quickly between two branches, or to
48 undo a branch switch by mistake.
49 As a special case, you may use A...B as a shortcut for the merge
51 base of A and B if there is exactly one merge base. You can leave
52 out at most one of A and B, in which case it defaults to HEAD.
53 -c <new-branch>, --create <new-branch>
55 Create a new branch named <new-branch> starting at <start-point>
56 before switching to the branch. This is a convenient shortcut for:
57 $ git branch <new-branch>
59 $ git switch <new-branch>
60 -C <new-branch>, --force-create <new-branch>
62 Similar to --create except that if <new-branch> already exists, it
63 will be reset to <start-point>. This is a convenient shortcut for:
64 $ git branch -f <new-branch>
66 $ git switch <new-branch>
67 -d, --detach
69 Switch to a commit for inspection and discardable experiments. See
70 the "DETACHED HEAD" section in git-checkout(1) for details.
71 --guess, --no-guess
73 If <branch> is not found but there does exist a tracking branch in
74 exactly one remote (call it <remote>) with a matching name, treat
75 as equivalent to
76 $ git switch -c <branch> --track <remote>/<branch>
78 If the branch exists in multiple remotes and one of them is named
80 by the checkout.defaultRemote configuration variable, we’ll use
81 that one for the purposes of disambiguation, even if the <branch>
82 isn’t unique across all remotes. Set it to e.g.
83 checkout.defaultRemote=origin to always checkout remote branches
84 from there if <branch> is ambiguous but exists on the origin
85 remote. See also checkout.defaultRemote in git-config(1).
86 --guess is the default behavior. Use --no-guess to disable it.
88 -f, --force
90 An alias for --discard-changes.
91 --discard-changes
93 Proceed even if the index or the working tree differs from HEAD.
94 Both the index and working tree are restored to match the switching
95 target. If --recurse-submodules is specified, submodule content is
96 also restored to match the switching target. This is used to throw
97 away local changes.
98 -m, --merge
100 If you have local modifications to one or more files that are
101 different between the current branch and the branch to which you
102 are switching, the command refuses to switch branches in order to
103 preserve your modifications in context. However, with this option,
104 a three-way merge between the current branch, your working tree
105 contents, and the new branch is done, and you will be on the new
106 branch.
107 When a merge conflict happens, the index entries for conflicting
109 paths are left unmerged, and you need to resolve the conflicts and
110 mark the resolved paths with git add (or git rm if the merge should
111 result in deletion of the path).
112 --conflict=<style>
114 The same as --merge option above, but changes the way the
115 conflicting hunks are presented, overriding the merge.conflictStyle
116 configuration variable. Possible values are "merge" (default) and
117 "diff3" (in addition to what is shown by "merge" style, shows the
118 original contents).
119 -q, --quiet
121 Quiet, suppress feedback messages.
122 --progress, --no-progress
124 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by default
125 when it is attached to a terminal, unless --quiet is specified.
126 This flag enables progress reporting even if not attached to a
127 terminal, regardless of --quiet.
128 -t, --track
130 When creating a new branch, set up "upstream" configuration. -c is
131 implied. See --track in git-branch(1) for details.
132 If no -c option is given, the name of the new branch will be
134 derived from the remote-tracking branch, by looking at the local
135 part of the refspec configured for the corresponding remote, and
136 then stripping the initial part up to the "*". This would tell us
137 to use hack as the local branch when branching off of origin/hack
138 (or remotes/origin/hack, or even refs/remotes/origin/hack). If the
139 given name has no slash, or the above guessing results in an empty
140 name, the guessing is aborted. You can explicitly give a name with
141 -c in such a case.
142 --no-track
144 Do not set up "upstream" configuration, even if the
145 branch.autoSetupMerge configuration variable is true.
146 --orphan <new-branch>
148 Create a new orphan branch, named <new-branch>. All tracked files
149 are removed.
150 --ignore-other-worktrees
152 git switch refuses when the wanted ref is already checked out by
153 another worktree. This option makes it check the ref out anyway. In
154 other words, the ref can be held by more than one worktree.
155 --recurse-submodules, --no-recurse-submodules
157 Using --recurse-submodules will update the content of all
158 initialized submodules according to the commit recorded in the
159 superproject. If nothing (or --no-recurse-submodules) is used, the
160 work trees of submodules will not be updated. Just like git-
161 submodule(1), this will detach HEAD of the submodules.
162
164 The following command switches to the "master" branch:
165 $ git switch master
167 After working in the wrong branch, switching to the correct branch
169 would be done using:
170 $ git switch mytopic
172 However, your "wrong" branch and correct "mytopic" branch may differ in
174 files that you have modified locally, in which case the above switch
175 would fail like this:
176 $ git switch mytopic
178 error: You have local changes to 'frotz'; not switching branches.
179 You can give the -m flag to the command, which would try a three-way
181 merge:
182 $ git switch -m mytopic
184 Auto-merging frotz
185 After this three-way merge, the local modifications are not registered
187 in your index file, so git diff would show you what changes you made
188 since the tip of the new branch.
189 To switch back to the previous branch before we switched to mytopic
191 (i.e. "master" branch):
192 $ git switch -
194 You can grow a new branch from any commit. For example, switch to
196 "HEAD~3" and create branch "fixup":
197 $ git switch -c fixup HEAD~3
199 Switched to a new branch 'fixup'
200 If you want to start a new branch from a remote branch of the same
202 name:
203 $ git switch new-topic
205 Branch 'new-topic' set up to track remote branch 'new-topic' from 'origin'
206 Switched to a new branch 'new-topic'
207 To check out commit HEAD~3 for temporary inspection or experiment
209 without creating a new branch:
210 $ git switch --detach HEAD~3
212 HEAD is now at 9fc9555312 Merge branch 'cc/shared-index-permbits'
213 If it turns out whatever you have done is worth keeping, you can always
215 create a new name for it (without switching away):
216 $ git switch -c good-surprises
218
220 git-checkout(1), git-branch(1)
221
223 Part of the git(1) suite
224Git 2.26.2 2020-04-20 GIT-SWITCH(1)