6 git-checkout - Checkout a branch or paths to the working tree
11 'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [<branch>]
12 'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [[-b|-B|--orphan] <new_branch>] [<start_point>]
13 'git checkout' [-f|--ours|--theirs|-m|--conflict=<style>] [<tree-ish>] [--] <paths>...
14 'git checkout' --patch [<tree-ish>] [--] [<paths>...]
18 Updates files in the working tree to match the version in the index
19 or the specified tree. If no paths are given, 'git checkout' will
20 also update `HEAD` to set the specified branch as the current
23 'git checkout' [<branch>]::
24 'git checkout' -b|-B <new_branch> [<start point>]::
26 This form switches branches by updating the index, working
27 tree, and HEAD to reflect the specified branch.
29 If `-b` is given, a new branch is created as if linkgit:git-branch[1]
30 were called and then checked out; in this case you can
31 use the `--track` or `--no-track` options, which will be passed to
32 'git branch'. As a convenience, `--track` without `-b` implies branch
33 creation; see the description of `--track` below.
35 If `-B` is given, <new_branch> is created if it doesn't exist; otherwise, it
36 is reset. This is the transactional equivalent of
39 $ git branch -f <branch> [<start point>]
40 $ git checkout <branch>
43 that is to say, the branch is not reset/created unless "git checkout" is
46 'git checkout' [--patch] [<tree-ish>] [--] <pathspec>...::
48 When <paths> or `--patch` are given, 'git checkout' does *not*
49 switch branches. It updates the named paths in the working tree
50 from the index file or from a named <tree-ish> (most often a
51 commit). In this case, the `-b` and `--track` options are
52 meaningless and giving either of them results in an error. The
53 <tree-ish> argument can be used to specify a specific tree-ish
54 (i.e. commit, tag or tree) to update the index for the given
55 paths before updating the working tree.
57 The index may contain unmerged entries because of a previous failed merge.
58 By default, if you try to check out such an entry from the index, the
59 checkout operation will fail and nothing will be checked out.
60 Using `-f` will ignore these unmerged entries. The contents from a
61 specific side of the merge can be checked out of the index by
62 using `--ours` or `--theirs`. With `-m`, changes made to the working tree
63 file can be discarded to re-create the original conflicted merge result.
69 Quiet, suppress feedback messages.
73 When switching branches, proceed even if the index or the
74 working tree differs from HEAD. This is used to throw away
77 When checking out paths from the index, do not fail upon unmerged
78 entries; instead, unmerged entries are ignored.
82 When checking out paths from the index, check out stage #2
83 ('ours') or #3 ('theirs') for unmerged paths.
86 Create a new branch named <new_branch> and start it at
87 <start_point>; see linkgit:git-branch[1] for details.
90 Creates the branch <new_branch> and start it at <start_point>;
91 if it already exists, then reset it to <start_point>. This is
92 equivalent to running "git branch" with "-f"; see
93 linkgit:git-branch[1] for details.
97 When creating a new branch, set up "upstream" configuration. See
98 "--track" in linkgit:git-branch[1] for details.
100 If no '-b' option is given, the name of the new branch will be
101 derived from the remote-tracking branch. If "remotes/" or "refs/remotes/"
102 is prefixed it is stripped away, and then the part up to the
103 next slash (which would be the nickname of the remote) is removed.
104 This would tell us to use "hack" as the local branch when branching
105 off of "origin/hack" (or "remotes/origin/hack", or even
106 "refs/remotes/origin/hack"). If the given name has no slash, or the above
107 guessing results in an empty name, the guessing is aborted. You can
108 explicitly give a name with '-b' in such a case.
111 Do not set up "upstream" configuration, even if the
112 branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable is true.
115 Create the new branch's reflog; see linkgit:git-branch[1] for
119 Create a new 'orphan' branch, named <new_branch>, started from
120 <start_point> and switch to it. The first commit made on this
121 new branch will have no parents and it will be the root of a new
122 history totally disconnected from all the other branches and
125 The index and the working tree are adjusted as if you had previously run
126 "git checkout <start_point>". This allows you to start a new history
127 that records a set of paths similar to <start_point> by easily running
128 "git commit -a" to make the root commit.
130 This can be useful when you want to publish the tree from a commit
131 without exposing its full history. You might want to do this to publish
132 an open source branch of a project whose current tree is "clean", but
133 whose full history contains proprietary or otherwise encumbered bits of
136 If you want to start a disconnected history that records a set of paths
137 that is totally different from the one of <start_point>, then you should
138 clear the index and the working tree right after creating the orphan
139 branch by running "git rm -rf ." from the top level of the working tree.
140 Afterwards you will be ready to prepare your new files, repopulating the
141 working tree, by copying them from elsewhere, extracting a tarball, etc.
145 When switching branches,
146 if you have local modifications to one or more files that
147 are different between the current branch and the branch to
148 which you are switching, the command refuses to switch
149 branches in order to preserve your modifications in context.
150 However, with this option, a three-way merge between the current
151 branch, your working tree contents, and the new branch
152 is done, and you will be on the new branch.
154 When a merge conflict happens, the index entries for conflicting
155 paths are left unmerged, and you need to resolve the conflicts
156 and mark the resolved paths with `git add` (or `git rm` if the merge
157 should result in deletion of the path).
159 When checking out paths from the index, this option lets you recreate
160 the conflicted merge in the specified paths.
163 The same as --merge option above, but changes the way the
164 conflicting hunks are presented, overriding the
165 merge.conflictstyle configuration variable. Possible values are
166 "merge" (default) and "diff3" (in addition to what is shown by
167 "merge" style, shows the original contents).
171 Interactively select hunks in the difference between the
172 <tree-ish> (or the index, if unspecified) and the working
173 tree. The chosen hunks are then applied in reverse to the
174 working tree (and if a <tree-ish> was specified, the index).
176 This means that you can use `git checkout -p` to selectively discard
177 edits from your current working tree.
180 Branch to checkout; if it refers to a branch (i.e., a name that,
181 when prepended with "refs/heads/", is a valid ref), then that
182 branch is checked out. Otherwise, if it refers to a valid
183 commit, your HEAD becomes "detached" and you are no longer on
184 any branch (see below for details).
186 As a special case, the `"@\{-N\}"` syntax for the N-th last branch
187 checks out the branch (instead of detaching). You may also specify
188 `-` which is synonymous with `"@\{-1\}"`.
190 As a further special case, you may use `"A\...B"` as a shortcut for the
191 merge base of `A` and `B` if there is exactly one merge base. You can
192 leave out at most one of `A` and `B`, in which case it defaults to `HEAD`.
195 Name for the new branch.
198 The name of a commit at which to start the new branch; see
199 linkgit:git-branch[1] for details. Defaults to HEAD.
202 Tree to checkout from (when paths are given). If not specified,
203 the index will be used.
209 HEAD normally refers to a named branch (e.g. 'master'). Meanwhile, each
210 branch refers to a specific commit. Let's look at a repo with three
211 commits, one of them tagged, and with branch 'master' checked out:
214 HEAD (refers to branch 'master')
217 a---b---c branch 'master' (refers to commit 'c')
220 tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b')
223 When a commit is created in this state, the branch is updated to refer to
224 the new commit. Specifically, 'git commit' creates a new commit 'd', whose
225 parent is commit 'c', and then updates branch 'master' to refer to new
226 commit 'd'. HEAD still refers to branch 'master' and so indirectly now refers
230 $ edit; git add; git commit
232 HEAD (refers to branch 'master')
235 a---b---c---d branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd')
238 tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b')
241 It is sometimes useful to be able to checkout a commit that is not at
242 the tip of any named branch, or even to create a new commit that is not
243 referenced by a named branch. Let's look at what happens when we
244 checkout commit 'b' (here we show two ways this may be done):
247 $ git checkout v2.0 # or
248 $ git checkout master^^
250 HEAD (refers to commit 'b')
253 a---b---c---d branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd')
256 tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b')
259 Notice that regardless of which checkout command we use, HEAD now refers
260 directly to commit 'b'. This is known as being in detached HEAD state.
261 It means simply that HEAD refers to a specific commit, as opposed to
262 referring to a named branch. Let's see what happens when we create a commit:
265 $ edit; git add; git commit
267 HEAD (refers to commit 'e')
272 a---b---c---d branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd')
275 tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b')
278 There is now a new commit 'e', but it is referenced only by HEAD. We can
279 of course add yet another commit in this state:
282 $ edit; git add; git commit
284 HEAD (refers to commit 'f')
289 a---b---c---d branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd')
292 tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b')
295 In fact, we can perform all the normal git operations. But, let's look
296 at what happens when we then checkout master:
299 $ git checkout master
301 HEAD (refers to branch 'master')
304 a---b---c---d branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd')
307 tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b')
310 It is important to realize that at this point nothing refers to commit
311 'f'. Eventually commit 'f' (and by extension commit 'e') will be deleted
312 by the routine git garbage collection process, unless we create a reference
313 before that happens. If we have not yet moved away from commit 'f',
314 any of these will create a reference to it:
317 $ git checkout -b foo <1>
322 <1> creates a new branch 'foo', which refers to commit 'f', and then
323 updates HEAD to refer to branch 'foo'. In other words, we'll no longer
324 be in detached HEAD state after this command.
326 <2> similarly creates a new branch 'foo', which refers to commit 'f',
327 but leaves HEAD detached.
329 <3> creates a new tag 'foo', which refers to commit 'f',
330 leaving HEAD detached.
332 If we have moved away from commit 'f', then we must first recover its object
333 name (typically by using git reflog), and then we can create a reference to
334 it. For example, to see the last two commits to which HEAD referred, we
335 can use either of these commands:
338 $ git reflog -2 HEAD # or
345 . The following sequence checks out the `master` branch, reverts
346 the `Makefile` to two revisions back, deletes hello.c by
347 mistake, and gets it back from the index.
350 $ git checkout master <1>
351 $ git checkout master~2 Makefile <2>
353 $ git checkout hello.c <3>
357 <2> take a file out of another commit
358 <3> restore hello.c from the index
360 If you have an unfortunate branch that is named `hello.c`, this
361 step would be confused as an instruction to switch to that branch.
362 You should instead write:
365 $ git checkout -- hello.c
368 . After working in the wrong branch, switching to the correct
369 branch would be done using:
372 $ git checkout mytopic
375 However, your "wrong" branch and correct "mytopic" branch may
376 differ in files that you have modified locally, in which case
377 the above checkout would fail like this:
380 $ git checkout mytopic
381 error: You have local changes to 'frotz'; not switching branches.
384 You can give the `-m` flag to the command, which would try a
388 $ git checkout -m mytopic
392 After this three-way merge, the local modifications are _not_
393 registered in your index file, so `git diff` would show you what
394 changes you made since the tip of the new branch.
396 . When a merge conflict happens during switching branches with
397 the `-m` option, you would see something like this:
400 $ git checkout -m mytopic
402 ERROR: Merge conflict in frotz
403 fatal: merge program failed
406 At this point, `git diff` shows the changes cleanly merged as in
407 the previous example, as well as the changes in the conflicted
408 files. Edit and resolve the conflict and mark it resolved with
419 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
423 Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
427 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite