Documentation/git-checkout.txt - git - Git at Google

 git-checkout(1)
 ===============

 NAME
 ----
 git-checkout - Checkout a branch or paths to the working tree

 SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
 'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [<branch>]
 '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>...]

 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
 Updates files in the working tree to match the version in the index
 or the specified tree.  If no paths are given, 'git checkout' will
 also update `HEAD` to set the specified branch as the current
 branch.

 'git checkout' [<branch>]::
 'git checkout' -b|-B <new_branch> [<start point>]::

 	This form switches branches by updating the index, working
 	tree, and HEAD to reflect the specified branch.
 +
 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
 use the `--track` or `--no-track` options, which will be passed to
 'git branch'.  As a convenience, `--track` without `-b` implies branch
 creation; see the description of `--track` below.
 +
 If `-B` is given, <new_branch> is created if it doesn't exist; otherwise, it
 is reset. This is the transactional equivalent of
 +
 ------------
 $ git branch -f <branch> [<start point>]
 $ git checkout <branch>
 ------------
 +
 that is to say, the branch is not reset/created unless "git checkout" is
 successful.

 'git checkout' [--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
 	from the index file or from a named <tree-ish> (most often a
 	commit).  In this case, the `-b` and `--track` options are
 	meaningless and giving either of them results in an error.  The
 	<tree-ish> argument can be used to specify a specific tree-ish
 	(i.e.  commit, tag or tree) to update the index for the given
 	paths before updating the working tree.
 +
 The index may contain unmerged entries because of a previous failed merge.
 By default, if you try to check out such an entry from the index, the
 checkout operation will fail and nothing will be checked out.
 Using `-f` will ignore these unmerged entries.  The contents from a
 specific side of the merge can be checked out of the index by
 using `--ours` or `--theirs`.  With `-m`, changes made to the working tree
 file can be discarded to re-create the original conflicted merge result.

 OPTIONS
 -------
 -q::
 --quiet::
 	Quiet, suppress feedback messages.

 -f::
 --force::
 	When switching branches, proceed even if the index or the
 	working tree differs from HEAD.  This is used to throw away
 	local changes.
 +
 When checking out paths from the index, do not fail upon unmerged
 entries; instead, unmerged entries are ignored.

 --ours::
 --theirs::
 	When checking out paths from the index, check out stage #2
 	('ours') or #3 ('theirs') for unmerged paths.

 -b::
 	Create a new branch named <new_branch> and start it at
 	<start_point>; see linkgit:git-branch[1] for details.

 -B::
 	Creates the branch <new_branch> and start it at <start_point>;
 	if it already exists, then reset it to <start_point>. This is
 	equivalent to running "git branch" with "-f"; see
 	linkgit:git-branch[1] for details.

 -t::
 --track::
 	When creating a new branch, set up "upstream" configuration. See
 	"--track" in linkgit:git-branch[1] for details.
 +
 If no '-b' option is given, the name of the new branch will be
 derived from the remote-tracking branch.  If "remotes/" or "refs/remotes/"
 is prefixed it is stripped away, and then the part up to the
 next slash (which would be the nickname of the remote) is removed.
 This would tell us to use "hack" as the local branch when branching
 off of "origin/hack" (or "remotes/origin/hack", or even
 "refs/remotes/origin/hack").  If the given name has no slash, or the above
 guessing results in an empty name, the guessing is aborted.  You can
 explicitly give a name with '-b' in such a case.

 --no-track::
 	Do not set up "upstream" configuration, even if the
 	branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable is true.

 -l::
 	Create the new branch's reflog; see linkgit:git-branch[1] 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
 	new branch will have no parents and it will be the root of a new
 	history totally disconnected from all the other branches and
 	commits.
 +
 The index and the working tree are adjusted as if you had previously run
 "git checkout <start_point>".  This allows you to start a new history
 that records a set of paths similar to <start_point> by easily running
 "git commit -a" to make the root commit.
 +
 This can be useful when you want to publish the tree from a commit
 without exposing its full history. You might want to do this to publish
 an open source branch of a project whose current tree is "clean", but
 whose full history contains proprietary or otherwise encumbered bits of
 code.
 +
 If you want to start a disconnected history that records a set of paths
 that is totally different from the one of <start_point>, then you should
 clear the index and the working tree right after creating the orphan
 branch by running "git rm -rf ." from the top level of the working tree.
 Afterwards you will be ready to prepare your new files, repopulating the
 working tree, by copying them from elsewhere, extracting a tarball, etc.

 -m::
 --merge::
 	When switching branches,
 	if you have local modifications to one or more files that
 	are different between the current branch and the branch to
 	which you are switching, the command refuses to switch
 	branches in order to preserve your modifications in context.
 	However, with this option, a three-way merge between the current
 	branch, your working tree contents, and the new branch
 	is done, and you will be on the new branch.
 +
 When a merge conflict happens, the index entries for conflicting
 paths are left unmerged, and you need to resolve the conflicts
 and mark the resolved paths with `git add` (or `git rm` if the merge
 should result in deletion of the path).
 +
 When checking out paths from the index, this option lets you recreate
 the conflicted merge in the specified paths.

 --conflict=<style>::
 	The same as --merge option above, but changes the way the
 	conflicting hunks are presented, overriding the
 	merge.conflictstyle configuration variable.  Possible values are
 	"merge" (default) and "diff3" (in addition to what is shown by
 	"merge" style, shows the original contents).

 -p::
 --patch::
 	Interactively select hunks in the difference between the
 	<tree-ish> (or the index, if unspecified) and the working
 	tree.  The chosen hunks are then applied in reverse to the
 	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.

 <branch>::
 	Branch to checkout; if it refers to a branch (i.e., a name that,
 	when prepended with "refs/heads/", is a valid ref), then that
 	branch is checked out. Otherwise, if it refers to a valid
 	commit, your HEAD becomes "detached" and you are no longer on
 	any branch (see below for details).
 +
 As a special case, the `"@\{-N\}"` syntax for the N-th last branch
 checks out the branch (instead of detaching).  You may also specify
 `-` which is synonymous with `"@\{-1\}"`.
 +
 As a further special case, you may use `"A\...B"` as a shortcut for the
 merge base of `A` and `B` if there is exactly one merge base. You can
 leave out at most one of `A` and `B`, in which case it defaults to `HEAD`.

 <new_branch>::
 	Name for the new branch.

 <start_point>::
 	The name of a commit at which to start the new branch; see
 	linkgit:git-branch[1] for details. Defaults to HEAD.

 <tree-ish>::
 	Tree to checkout from (when paths are given). If not specified,
 	the index will be used.


 Detached HEAD
 -------------

 It is sometimes useful to be able to 'checkout' a commit that is
 not at the tip of one of your branches.  The most obvious
 example is to check out the commit at a tagged official release
 point, like this:

 ------------
 $ git checkout v2.6.18
 ------------

 Earlier versions of git did not allow this and asked you to
 create a temporary branch using the `-b` option, but starting from
 version 1.5.0, the above command 'detaches' your HEAD from the
 current branch and directly points at the commit named by the tag
 (`v2.6.18` in the example above).

 You can use all git commands while in this state.  You can use
 `git reset --hard $othercommit` to further move around, for
 example.  You can make changes and create a new commit on top of
 a detached HEAD.  You can even create a merge by using `git
 merge $othercommit`.

 The state you are in while your HEAD is detached is not recorded
 by any branch (which is natural --- you are not on any branch).
 What this means is that you can discard your temporary commits
 and merges by switching back to an existing branch (e.g. `git
 checkout master`), and a later `git prune` or `git gc` would
 garbage-collect them.  If you did this by mistake, you can ask
 the reflog for HEAD where you were, e.g.

 ------------
 $ git log -g -2 HEAD
 ------------


 EXAMPLES
 --------

 . The following sequence checks out the `master` branch, reverts
 the `Makefile` to two revisions back, deletes hello.c by
 mistake, and gets it back from the index.
 +
 ------------
 $ git checkout master             <1>
 $ git checkout master~2 Makefile  <2>
 $ rm -f hello.c
 $ git checkout hello.c            <3>
 ------------
 +
 <1> switch branch
 <2> take a file out of another commit
 <3> restore hello.c from the index
 +
 If you have an unfortunate branch that is named `hello.c`, this
 step would be confused as an instruction to switch to that branch.
 You should instead write:
 +
 ------------
 $ git checkout -- hello.c
 ------------

 . After working in the wrong branch, switching to the correct
 branch would be done using:
 +
 ------------
 $ git checkout mytopic
 ------------
 +
 However, your "wrong" branch and correct "mytopic" branch may
 differ in files that you have modified locally, in which case
 the above checkout would fail like this:
 +
 ------------
 $ git checkout mytopic
 error: You have local changes to 'frotz'; not switching branches.
 ------------
 +
 You can give the `-m` flag to the command, which would try a
 three-way merge:
 +
 ------------
 $ git checkout -m mytopic
 Auto-merging frotz
 ------------
 +
 After this three-way merge, the local modifications are _not_
 registered in your index file, so `git diff` would show you what
 changes you made since the tip of the new branch.

 . When a merge conflict happens during switching branches with
 the `-m` option, you would see something like this:
 +
 ------------
 $ git checkout -m mytopic
 Auto-merging frotz
 ERROR: Merge conflict in frotz
 fatal: merge program failed
 ------------
 +
 At this point, `git diff` shows the changes cleanly merged as in
 the previous example, as well as the changes in the conflicted
 files.  Edit and resolve the conflict and mark it resolved with
 `git add` as usual:
 +
 ------------
 $ edit frotz
 $ 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
	git-checkout(1)
	===============

	NAME
	----
	git-checkout - Checkout a branch or paths to the working tree

	SYNOPSIS
	--------
	[verse]
	'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [<branch>]
	'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>...]

	DESCRIPTION
	-----------
	Updates files in the working tree to match the version in the index
	or the specified tree. If no paths are given, 'git checkout' will
	also update `HEAD` to set the specified branch as the current
	branch.

	'git checkout' [<branch>]::
	'git checkout' -b\|-B <new_branch> [<start point>]::

	This form switches branches by updating the index, working
	tree, and HEAD to reflect the specified branch.
	+
	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
	use the `--track` or `--no-track` options, which will be passed to
	'git branch'. As a convenience, `--track` without `-b` implies branch
	creation; see the description of `--track` below.
	+
	If `-B` is given, <new_branch> is created if it doesn't exist; otherwise, it
	is reset. This is the transactional equivalent of
	+
	------------
	$ git branch -f <branch> [<start point>]
	$ git checkout <branch>
	------------
	+
	that is to say, the branch is not reset/created unless "git checkout" is
	successful.

	'git checkout' [--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
	from the index file or from a named <tree-ish> (most often a
	commit). In this case, the `-b` and `--track` options are
	meaningless and giving either of them results in an error. The
	<tree-ish> argument can be used to specify a specific tree-ish
	(i.e. commit, tag or tree) to update the index for the given
	paths before updating the working tree.
	+
	The index may contain unmerged entries because of a previous failed merge.
	By default, if you try to check out such an entry from the index, the
	checkout operation will fail and nothing will be checked out.
	Using `-f` will ignore these unmerged entries. The contents from a
	specific side of the merge can be checked out of the index by
	using `--ours` or `--theirs`. With `-m`, changes made to the working tree
	file can be discarded to re-create the original conflicted merge result.

	OPTIONS
	-------
	-q::
	--quiet::
	Quiet, suppress feedback messages.

	-f::
	--force::
	When switching branches, proceed even if the index or the
	working tree differs from HEAD. This is used to throw away
	local changes.
	+
	When checking out paths from the index, do not fail upon unmerged
	entries; instead, unmerged entries are ignored.

	--ours::
	--theirs::
	When checking out paths from the index, check out stage #2
	('ours') or #3 ('theirs') for unmerged paths.

	-b::
	Create a new branch named <new_branch> and start it at
	<start_point>; see linkgit:git-branch[1] for details.

	-B::
	Creates the branch <new_branch> and start it at <start_point>;
	if it already exists, then reset it to <start_point>. This is
	equivalent to running "git branch" with "-f"; see
	linkgit:git-branch[1] for details.

	-t::
	--track::
	When creating a new branch, set up "upstream" configuration. See
	"--track" in linkgit:git-branch[1] for details.
	+
	If no '-b' option is given, the name of the new branch will be
	derived from the remote-tracking branch. If "remotes/" or "refs/remotes/"
	is prefixed it is stripped away, and then the part up to the
	next slash (which would be the nickname of the remote) is removed.
	This would tell us to use "hack" as the local branch when branching
	off of "origin/hack" (or "remotes/origin/hack", or even
	"refs/remotes/origin/hack"). If the given name has no slash, or the above
	guessing results in an empty name, the guessing is aborted. You can
	explicitly give a name with '-b' in such a case.

	--no-track::
	Do not set up "upstream" configuration, even if the
	branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable is true.

	-l::
	Create the new branch's reflog; see linkgit:git-branch[1] 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
	new branch will have no parents and it will be the root of a new
	history totally disconnected from all the other branches and
	commits.
	+
	The index and the working tree are adjusted as if you had previously run
	"git checkout <start_point>". This allows you to start a new history
	that records a set of paths similar to <start_point> by easily running
	"git commit -a" to make the root commit.
	+
	This can be useful when you want to publish the tree from a commit
	without exposing its full history. You might want to do this to publish
	an open source branch of a project whose current tree is "clean", but
	whose full history contains proprietary or otherwise encumbered bits of
	code.
	+
	If you want to start a disconnected history that records a set of paths
	that is totally different from the one of <start_point>, then you should
	clear the index and the working tree right after creating the orphan
	branch by running "git rm -rf ." from the top level of the working tree.
	Afterwards you will be ready to prepare your new files, repopulating the
	working tree, by copying them from elsewhere, extracting a tarball, etc.

	-m::
	--merge::
	When switching branches,
	if you have local modifications to one or more files that
	are different between the current branch and the branch to
	which you are switching, the command refuses to switch
	branches in order to preserve your modifications in context.
	However, with this option, a three-way merge between the current
	branch, your working tree contents, and the new branch
	is done, and you will be on the new branch.
	+
	When a merge conflict happens, the index entries for conflicting
	paths are left unmerged, and you need to resolve the conflicts
	and mark the resolved paths with `git add` (or `git rm` if the merge
	should result in deletion of the path).
	+
	When checking out paths from the index, this option lets you recreate
	the conflicted merge in the specified paths.

	--conflict=<style>::
	The same as --merge option above, but changes the way the
	conflicting hunks are presented, overriding the
	merge.conflictstyle configuration variable. Possible values are
	"merge" (default) and "diff3" (in addition to what is shown by
	"merge" style, shows the original contents).

	-p::
	--patch::
	Interactively select hunks in the difference between the
	<tree-ish> (or the index, if unspecified) and the working
	tree. The chosen hunks are then applied in reverse to the
	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.

	<branch>::
	Branch to checkout; if it refers to a branch (i.e., a name that,
	when prepended with "refs/heads/", is a valid ref), then that
	branch is checked out. Otherwise, if it refers to a valid
	commit, your HEAD becomes "detached" and you are no longer on
	any branch (see below for details).
	+
	As a special case, the `"@\{-N\}"` syntax for the N-th last branch
	checks out the branch (instead of detaching). You may also specify
	`-` which is synonymous with `"@\{-1\}"`.
	+
	As a further special case, you may use `"A\...B"` as a shortcut for the
	merge base of `A` and `B` if there is exactly one merge base. You can
	leave out at most one of `A` and `B`, in which case it defaults to `HEAD`.

	<new_branch>::
	Name for the new branch.

	<start_point>::
	The name of a commit at which to start the new branch; see
	linkgit:git-branch[1] for details. Defaults to HEAD.

	<tree-ish>::
	Tree to checkout from (when paths are given). If not specified,
	the index will be used.



	Detached HEAD
	-------------

	It is sometimes useful to be able to 'checkout' a commit that is
	not at the tip of one of your branches. The most obvious
	example is to check out the commit at a tagged official release
	point, like this:

	------------
	$ git checkout v2.6.18
	------------

	Earlier versions of git did not allow this and asked you to
	create a temporary branch using the `-b` option, but starting from
	version 1.5.0, the above command 'detaches' your HEAD from the
	current branch and directly points at the commit named by the tag
	(`v2.6.18` in the example above).

	You can use all git commands while in this state. You can use
	`git reset --hard $othercommit` to further move around, for
	example. You can make changes and create a new commit on top of
	a detached HEAD. You can even create a merge by using `git
	merge $othercommit`.

	The state you are in while your HEAD is detached is not recorded
	by any branch (which is natural --- you are not on any branch).
	What this means is that you can discard your temporary commits
	and merges by switching back to an existing branch (e.g. `git
	checkout master`), and a later `git prune` or `git gc` would
	garbage-collect them. If you did this by mistake, you can ask
	the reflog for HEAD where you were, e.g.

	------------
	$ git log -g -2 HEAD
	------------


	EXAMPLES
	--------

	. The following sequence checks out the `master` branch, reverts
	the `Makefile` to two revisions back, deletes hello.c by
	mistake, and gets it back from the index.
	+
	------------
	$ git checkout master <1>
	$ git checkout master~2 Makefile <2>
	$ rm -f hello.c
	$ git checkout hello.c <3>
	------------
	+
	<1> switch branch
	<2> take a file out of another commit
	<3> restore hello.c from the index
	+
	If you have an unfortunate branch that is named `hello.c`, this
	step would be confused as an instruction to switch to that branch.
	You should instead write:
	+
	------------
	$ git checkout -- hello.c
	------------

	. After working in the wrong branch, switching to the correct
	branch would be done using:
	+
	------------
	$ git checkout mytopic
	------------
	+
	However, your "wrong" branch and correct "mytopic" branch may
	differ in files that you have modified locally, in which case
	the above checkout would fail like this:
	+
	------------
	$ git checkout mytopic
	error: You have local changes to 'frotz'; not switching branches.
	------------
	+
	You can give the `-m` flag to the command, which would try a
	three-way merge:
	+
	------------
	$ git checkout -m mytopic
	Auto-merging frotz
	------------
	+
	After this three-way merge, the local modifications are _not_
	registered in your index file, so `git diff` would show you what
	changes you made since the tip of the new branch.

	. When a merge conflict happens during switching branches with
	the `-m` option, you would see something like this:
	+
	------------
	$ git checkout -m mytopic
	Auto-merging frotz
	ERROR: Merge conflict in frotz
	fatal: merge program failed
	------------
	+
	At this point, `git diff` shows the changes cleanly merged as in
	the previous example, as well as the changes in the conflicted
	files. Edit and resolve the conflict and mark it resolved with
	`git add` as usual:
	+
	------------
	$ edit frotz
	$ 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