1GIT-WORKTREE(1) Git Manual GIT-WORKTREE(1)
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6 git-worktree - Manage multiple working trees
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9 git worktree add [-f] [--detach] [--checkout] [--lock] [-b <new-branch>] <path> [<commit-ish>]
10 git worktree list [--porcelain]
11 git worktree lock [--reason <string>] <worktree>
12 git worktree move <worktree> <new-path>
13 git worktree prune [-n] [-v] [--expire <expire>]
14 git worktree remove [-f] <worktree>
15 git worktree unlock <worktree>
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19 Manage multiple working trees attached to the same repository.
20 A git repository can support multiple working trees, allowing you to
22 check out more than one branch at a time. With git worktree add a new
23 working tree is associated with the repository. This new working tree
24 is called a "linked working tree" as opposed to the "main working tree"
25 prepared by "git init" or "git clone". A repository has one main
26 working tree (if it’s not a bare repository) and zero or more linked
27 working trees. When you are done with a linked working tree, remove it
28 with git worktree remove.
29 If a working tree is deleted without using git worktree remove, then
31 its associated administrative files, which reside in the repository
32 (see "DETAILS" below), will eventually be removed automatically (see
33 gc.worktreePruneExpire in git-config(1)), or you can run git worktree
34 prune in the main or any linked working tree to clean up any stale
35 administrative files.
36 If a linked working tree is stored on a portable device or network
38 share which is not always mounted, you can prevent its administrative
39 files from being pruned by issuing the git worktree lock command,
40 optionally specifying --reason to explain why the working tree is
41 locked.
42
44 add <path> [<commit-ish>]
45 Create <path> and checkout <commit-ish> into it. The new working
46 directory is linked to the current repository, sharing everything
47 except working directory specific files such as HEAD, index, etc.
48 - may also be specified as <commit-ish>; it is synonymous with
49 @{-1}.
50 If <commit-ish> is a branch name (call it <branch>) and is not
52 found, and neither -b nor -B nor --detach are used, but there does
53 exist a tracking branch in exactly one remote (call it <remote>)
54 with a matching name, treat as equivalent to:
55 $ git worktree add --track -b <branch> <path> <remote>/<branch>
57 If the branch exists in multiple remotes and one of them is named
59 by the checkout.defaultRemote configuration variable, we’ll use
60 that one for the purposes of disambiguation, even if the <branch>
61 isn’t unique across all remotes. Set it to e.g.
62 checkout.defaultRemote=origin to always checkout remote branches
63 from there if <branch> is ambiguous but exists on the origin
64 remote. See also checkout.defaultRemote in git-config(1).
65 If <commit-ish> is omitted and neither -b nor -B nor --detach used,
67 then, as a convenience, the new worktree is associated with a
68 branch (call it <branch>) named after $(basename <path>). If
69 <branch> doesn’t exist, a new branch based on HEAD is automatically
70 created as if -b <branch> was given. If <branch> does exist, it
71 will be checked out in the new worktree, if it’s not checked out
72 anywhere else, otherwise the command will refuse to create the
73 worktree (unless --force is used).
74 list
76 List details of each worktree. The main worktree is listed first,
77 followed by each of the linked worktrees. The output details
78 include if the worktree is bare, the revision currently checked
79 out, and the branch currently checked out (or detached HEAD if
80 none).
81 lock
83 If a working tree is on a portable device or network share which is
84 not always mounted, lock it to prevent its administrative files
85 from being pruned automatically. This also prevents it from being
86 moved or deleted. Optionally, specify a reason for the lock with
87 --reason.
88 move
90 Move a working tree to a new location. Note that the main working
91 tree or linked working trees containing submodules cannot be moved.
92 prune
94 Prune working tree information in $GIT_DIR/worktrees.
95 remove
97 Remove a working tree. Only clean working trees (no untracked files
98 and no modification in tracked files) can be removed. Unclean
99 working trees or ones with submodules can be removed with --force.
100 The main working tree cannot be removed.
101 unlock
103 Unlock a working tree, allowing it to be pruned, moved or deleted.
104
106 -f, --force
107 By default, add refuses to create a new working tree when
108 <commit-ish> is a branch name and is already checked out by another
109 working tree, or if <path> is already assigned to some working tree
110 but is missing (for instance, if <path> was deleted manually). This
111 option overrides these safeguards. To add a missing but locked
112 working tree path, specify --force twice.
113 move refuses to move a locked working tree unless --force is
115 specified twice.
116 remove refuses to remove an unclean working tree unless --force is
118 used. To remove a locked working tree, specify --force twice.
119 -b <new-branch>, -B <new-branch>
121 With add, create a new branch named <new-branch> starting at
122 <commit-ish>, and check out <new-branch> into the new working tree.
123 If <commit-ish> is omitted, it defaults to HEAD. By default, -b
124 refuses to create a new branch if it already exists. -B overrides
125 this safeguard, resetting <new-branch> to <commit-ish>.
126 --detach
128 With add, detach HEAD in the new working tree. See "DETACHED HEAD"
129 in git-checkout(1).
130 --[no-]checkout
132 By default, add checks out <commit-ish>, however, --no-checkout can
133 be used to suppress checkout in order to make customizations, such
134 as configuring sparse-checkout. See "Sparse checkout" in git-read-
135 tree(1).
136 --[no-]guess-remote
138 With worktree add <path>, without <commit-ish>, instead of creating
139 a new branch from HEAD, if there exists a tracking branch in
140 exactly one remote matching the basename of <path>, base the new
141 branch on the remote-tracking branch, and mark the remote-tracking
142 branch as "upstream" from the new branch.
143 This can also be set up as the default behaviour by using the
145 worktree.guessRemote config option.
146 --[no-]track
148 When creating a new branch, if <commit-ish> is a branch, mark it as
149 "upstream" from the new branch. This is the default if <commit-ish>
150 is a remote-tracking branch. See "--track" in git-branch(1) for
151 details.
152 --lock
154 Keep the working tree locked after creation. This is the equivalent
155 of git worktree lock after git worktree add, but without race
156 condition.
157 -n, --dry-run
159 With prune, do not remove anything; just report what it would
160 remove.
161 --porcelain
163 With list, output in an easy-to-parse format for scripts. This
164 format will remain stable across Git versions and regardless of
165 user configuration. See below for details.
166 -q, --quiet
168 With add, suppress feedback messages.
169 -v, --verbose
171 With prune, report all removals.
172 --expire <time>
174 With prune, only expire unused working trees older than <time>.
175 --reason <string>
177 With lock, an explanation why the working tree is locked.
178 <worktree>
180 Working trees can be identified by path, either relative or
181 absolute.
182 If the last path components in the working tree’s path is unique
184 among working trees, it can be used to identify worktrees. For
185 example if you only have two working trees, at "/abc/def/ghi" and
186 "/abc/def/ggg", then "ghi" or "def/ghi" is enough to point to the
187 former working tree.
188
190 In multiple working trees, some refs may be shared between all working
191 trees, some refs are local. One example is HEAD is different for all
192 working trees. This section is about the sharing rules and how to
193 access refs of one working tree from another.
194 In general, all pseudo refs are per working tree and all refs starting
196 with "refs/" are shared. Pseudo refs are ones like HEAD which are
197 directly under GIT_DIR instead of inside GIT_DIR/refs. There is one
198 exception to this: refs inside refs/bisect and refs/worktree is not
199 shared.
200 Refs that are per working tree can still be accessed from another
202 working tree via two special paths, main-worktree and worktrees. The
203 former gives access to per-worktree refs of the main working tree,
204 while the latter to all linked working trees.
205 For example, main-worktree/HEAD or main-worktree/refs/bisect/good
207 resolve to the same value as the main working tree’s HEAD and
208 refs/bisect/good respectively. Similarly, worktrees/foo/HEAD or
209 worktrees/bar/refs/bisect/bad are the same as
210 GIT_COMMON_DIR/worktrees/foo/HEAD and
211 GIT_COMMON_DIR/worktrees/bar/refs/bisect/bad.
212 To access refs, it’s best not to look inside GIT_DIR directly. Instead
214 use commands such as git-rev-parse(1) or git-update-ref(1) which will
215 handle refs correctly.
216
218 By default, the repository "config" file is shared across all working
219 trees. If the config variables core.bare or core.worktree are already
220 present in the config file, they will be applied to the main working
221 trees only.
222 In order to have configuration specific to working trees, you can turn
224 on "worktreeConfig" extension, e.g.:
225 $ git config extensions.worktreeConfig true
227 In this mode, specific configuration stays in the path pointed by git
230 rev-parse --git-path config.worktree. You can add or update
231 configuration in this file with git config --worktree. Older Git
232 versions will refuse to access repositories with this extension.
233 Note that in this file, the exception for core.bare and core.worktree
235 is gone. If you have them in $GIT_DIR/config before, you must move them
236 to the config.worktree of the main working tree. You may also take this
237 opportunity to review and move other configuration that you do not want
238 to share to all working trees:
239 · core.worktree and core.bare should never be shared
241 · core.sparseCheckout is recommended per working tree, unless you are
243 sure you always use sparse checkout for all working trees.
244
246 Each linked working tree has a private sub-directory in the
247 repository’s $GIT_DIR/worktrees directory. The private sub-directory’s
248 name is usually the base name of the linked working tree’s path,
249 possibly appended with a number to make it unique. For example, when
250 $GIT_DIR=/path/main/.git the command git worktree add
251 /path/other/test-next next creates the linked working tree in
252 /path/other/test-next and also creates a $GIT_DIR/worktrees/test-next
253 directory (or $GIT_DIR/worktrees/test-next1 if test-next is already
254 taken).
255 Within a linked working tree, $GIT_DIR is set to point to this private
257 directory (e.g. /path/main/.git/worktrees/test-next in the example) and
258 $GIT_COMMON_DIR is set to point back to the main working tree’s
259 $GIT_DIR (e.g. /path/main/.git). These settings are made in a .git file
260 located at the top directory of the linked working tree.
261 Path resolution via git rev-parse --git-path uses either $GIT_DIR or
263 $GIT_COMMON_DIR depending on the path. For example, in the linked
264 working tree git rev-parse --git-path HEAD returns
265 /path/main/.git/worktrees/test-next/HEAD (not
266 /path/other/test-next/.git/HEAD or /path/main/.git/HEAD) while git
267 rev-parse --git-path refs/heads/master uses $GIT_COMMON_DIR and returns
268 /path/main/.git/refs/heads/master, since refs are shared across all
269 working trees, except refs/bisect and refs/worktree.
270 See gitrepository-layout(5) for more information. The rule of thumb is
272 do not make any assumption about whether a path belongs to $GIT_DIR or
273 $GIT_COMMON_DIR when you need to directly access something inside
274 $GIT_DIR. Use git rev-parse --git-path to get the final path.
275 If you manually move a linked working tree, you need to update the
277 gitdir file in the entry’s directory. For example, if a linked working
278 tree is moved to /newpath/test-next and its .git file points to
279 /path/main/.git/worktrees/test-next, then update
280 /path/main/.git/worktrees/test-next/gitdir to reference
281 /newpath/test-next instead.
282 To prevent a $GIT_DIR/worktrees entry from being pruned (which can be
284 useful in some situations, such as when the entry’s working tree is
285 stored on a portable device), use the git worktree lock command, which
286 adds a file named locked to the entry’s directory. The file contains
287 the reason in plain text. For example, if a linked working tree’s .git
288 file points to /path/main/.git/worktrees/test-next then a file named
289 /path/main/.git/worktrees/test-next/locked will prevent the test-next
290 entry from being pruned. See gitrepository-layout(5) for details.
291 When extensions.worktreeConfig is enabled, the config file
293 .git/worktrees/<id>/config.worktree is read after .git/config is.
294
296 The worktree list command has two output formats. The default format
297 shows the details on a single line with columns. For example:
298 $ git worktree list
300 /path/to/bare-source (bare)
301 /path/to/linked-worktree abcd1234 [master]
302 /path/to/other-linked-worktree 1234abc (detached HEAD)
303 Porcelain Format
306 The porcelain format has a line per attribute. Attributes are listed
307 with a label and value separated by a single space. Boolean attributes
308 (like bare and detached) are listed as a label only, and are only
309 present if and only if the value is true. The first attribute of a
310 worktree is always worktree, an empty line indicates the end of the
311 record. For example:
312 $ git worktree list --porcelain
314 worktree /path/to/bare-source
315 bare
316 worktree /path/to/linked-worktree
318 HEAD abcd1234abcd1234abcd1234abcd1234abcd1234
319 branch refs/heads/master
320 worktree /path/to/other-linked-worktree
322 HEAD 1234abc1234abc1234abc1234abc1234abc1234a
323 detached
324
327 You are in the middle of a refactoring session and your boss comes in
328 and demands that you fix something immediately. You might typically use
329 git-stash(1) to store your changes away temporarily, however, your
330 working tree is in such a state of disarray (with new, moved, and
331 removed files, and other bits and pieces strewn around) that you don’t
332 want to risk disturbing any of it. Instead, you create a temporary
333 linked working tree to make the emergency fix, remove it when done, and
334 then resume your earlier refactoring session.
335 $ git worktree add -b emergency-fix ../temp master
337 $ pushd ../temp
338 # ... hack hack hack ...
339 $ git commit -a -m 'emergency fix for boss'
340 $ popd
341 $ git worktree remove ../temp
342
345 Multiple checkout in general is still experimental, and the support for
346 submodules is incomplete. It is NOT recommended to make multiple
347 checkouts of a superproject.
348
350 Part of the git(1) suite
351Git 2.24.1 12/10/2019 GIT-WORKTREE(1)