1GIT-CHECKOUT(1) Git Manual GIT-CHECKOUT(1)
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6 git-checkout - Checkout and switch to a branch
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9 git-checkout [-q] [-f] [[--track | --no-track] -b <new_branch> [-l]] [-m] [<branch>]
10 git-checkout [<tree-ish>] <paths>...
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13 When <paths> are not given, this command switches branches by updating
14 the index and working tree to reflect the specified branch, <branch>,
15 and updating HEAD to be <branch> or, if specified, <new_branch>. Using
16 -b will cause <new_branch> to be created; in this case you can use the
17 --track or --no-track options, which will be passed to git branch.
18 When <paths> are given, this command does not switch branches. It
20 updates the named paths in the working tree from the index file (i.e.
21 it runs git-checkout-index -f -u), or from a named commit. In this
22 case, the -f and -b options are meaningless and giving either of them
23 results in an error. <tree-ish> argument can be used to specify a
24 specific tree-ish (i.e. commit, tag or tree) to update the index for
25 the given paths before updating the working tree.
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28 -q
29 Quiet, suppress feedback messages.
30 -f
32 Proceed even if the index or the working tree differs from HEAD.
33 This is used to throw away local changes.
34 -b
36 Create a new branch named <new_branch> and start it at <branch>.
37 The new branch name must pass all checks defined by git-check-ref-
38 format(1). Some of these checks may restrict the characters allowed
39 in a branch name.
40 --track
42 When -b is given and a branch is created off a remote branch, set
43 up configuration so that git-pull will automatically retrieve data
44 from the remote branch. Set the branch.autosetupmerge configuration
45 variable to true if you want git-checkout and git-branch to always
46 behave as if --track were given.
47 --no-track
49 When -b is given and a branch is created off a remote branch, set
50 up configuration so that git-pull will not retrieve data from the
51 remote branch, ignoring the branch.autosetupmerge configuration
52 variable.
53 -l
55 Create the new branch´s reflog. This activates recording of all
56 changes made to the branch ref, enabling use of date based sha1
57 expressions such as "<branchname>@{yesterday}".
58 -m
60 If you have local modifications to one or more files that are
61 different between the current branch and the branch to which you
62 are switching, the command refuses to switch branches in order to
63 preserve your modifications in context. However, with this option,
64 a three-way merge between the current branch, your working tree
65 contents, and the new branch is done, and you will be on the new
66 branch.
67 When a merge conflict happens, the index entries for conflicting
69 paths are left unmerged, and you need to resolve the conflicts and
70 mark the resolved paths with git add (or git rm if the merge should
71 result in deletion of the path).
72 <new_branch>
74 Name for the new branch.
75 <branch>
77 Branch to checkout; may be any object ID that resolves to a commit.
78 Defaults to HEAD.
79 When this parameter names a non-branch (but still a valid commit
81 object), your HEAD becomes detached.
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84 It is sometimes useful to be able to checkout a commit that is not at
85 the tip of one of your branches. The most obvious example is to check
86 out the commit at a tagged official release point, like this:
87 $ git checkout v2.6.18
91 Earlier versions of git did not allow this and asked you to create a
93 temporary branch using -b option, but starting from version 1.5.0, the
94 above command detaches your HEAD from the current branch and directly
95 point at the commit named by the tag (v2.6.18 in the above example).
96 You can use usual git commands while in this state. You can use
98 git-reset --hard $othercommit to further move around, for example. You
99 can make changes and create a new commit on top of a detached HEAD. You
100 can even create a merge by using git merge $othercommit.
101 The state you are in while your HEAD is detached is not recorded by any
103 branch (which is natural --- you are not on any branch). What this
104 means is that you can discard your temporary commits and merges by
105 switching back to an existing branch (e.g. git checkout master), and a
106 later git prune or git gc would garbage-collect them. If you did this
107 by mistake, you can ask the reflog for HEAD where you were, e.g.
108 $ git log -g -2 HEAD
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115 1. The following sequence checks out the master branch, reverts the
116 Makefile to two revisions back, deletes hello.c by mistake, and
117 gets it back from the index.
118 $ git checkout master [1m(1)
122 $ git checkout master~2 Makefile [1m(2)
123 $ rm -f hello.c
124 $ git checkout hello.c [1m(3)
125 1. switch branch
128 2. take out a file out of other commit
129 3. restore hello.c from HEAD of current branch
130 If you have an unfortunate branch that is named hello.c, this step
132 would be confused as an instruction to switch to that branch. You
133 should instead write:
134 $ git checkout -- hello.c
138 2. After working in a wrong branch, switching to the correct branch
141 would be done using:
142 $ git checkout mytopic
146 However, your "wrong" branch and correct "mytopic" branch may
148 differ in files that you have locally modified, in which case, the
149 above checkout would fail like this:
150 $ git checkout mytopic
154 fatal: Entry ´frotz´ not uptodate. Cannot merge.
155 You can give the -m flag to the command, which would try a
157 three-way merge:
158 $ git checkout -m mytopic
162 Auto-merging frotz
163 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.
167 3. When a merge conflict happens during switching branches with the
169 -m option, you would see something like this:
170 $ git checkout -m mytopic
174 Auto-merging frotz
175 merge: warning: conflicts during merge
176 ERROR: Merge conflict in frotz
177 fatal: merge program failed
178 At this point, git diff shows the changes cleanly merged as in the
180 previous example, as well as the changes in the conflicted files.
181 Edit and resolve the conflict and mark it resolved with git add as
182 usual:
183 $ edit frotz
187 $ git add frotz
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191 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
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194 Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
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197 Part of the git(7) suite
198Git 1.5.3.3 10/09/2007 GIT-CHECKOUT(1)