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 <new_branch>] [<start_point>]
13 'git checkout' [-f|--ours|--theirs|-m|--conflict=<style>] [<tree-ish>] [--] <paths>...
14 'git checkout' --patch [<tree-ish>] [--] [<paths>...]
18 Retrieves files from the index or specified tree and writes them
21 'git checkout' [-b <new branch>] [<branch>]::
23 When <paths> are not given, this command switches branches by
24 updating the index, working tree, and HEAD to reflect the
27 If `-b` is given, a new branch is created and checked out, as if
28 linkgit:git-branch[1] were called; in this case you can
29 use the --track or --no-track options, which will be passed to `git
30 branch`. As a convenience, --track without `-b` implies branch
31 creation; see the description of --track below.
33 'git checkout' [--patch] [<tree-ish>] [--] [<pathspec>...]::
35 When <paths> or --patch are given, this command does *not* switch
36 branches. It updates the named paths in the working tree from
37 the index file, or from a named <tree-ish> (most often a commit). In
38 this case, the `-b` and `--track` options are meaningless and giving
39 either of them results in an error. The <tree-ish> argument can be
40 used to specify a specific tree-ish (i.e. commit, tag or tree)
41 to update the index for the given paths before updating the
44 The index may contain unmerged entries after a failed merge. By
45 default, if you try to check out such an entry from the index, the
46 checkout operation will fail and nothing will be checked out.
47 Using -f will ignore these unmerged entries. The contents from a
48 specific side of the merge can be checked out of the index by
49 using --ours or --theirs. With -m, changes made to the working tree
50 file can be discarded to recreate the original conflicted merge result.
56 Quiet, suppress feedback messages.
60 When switching branches, proceed even if the index or the
61 working tree differs from HEAD. This is used to throw away
64 When checking out paths from the index, do not fail upon unmerged
65 entries; instead, unmerged entries are ignored.
69 When checking out paths from the index, check out stage #2
70 ('ours') or #3 ('theirs') for unmerged paths.
73 Create a new branch named <new_branch> and start it at
74 <start_point>; see linkgit:git-branch[1] for details.
78 When creating a new branch, set up "upstream" configuration. See
79 "--track" in linkgit:git-branch[1] for details.
81 If no '-b' option is given, the name of the new branch will be
82 derived from the remote branch. If "remotes/" or "refs/remotes/"
83 is prefixed it is stripped away, and then the part up to the
84 next slash (which would be the nickname of the remote) is removed.
85 This would tell us to use "hack" as the local branch when branching
86 off of "origin/hack" (or "remotes/origin/hack", or even
87 "refs/remotes/origin/hack"). If the given name has no slash, or the above
88 guessing results in an empty name, the guessing is aborted. You can
89 explicitly give a name with '-b' in such a case.
92 Do not set up "upstream" configuration, even if the
93 branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable is true.
96 Create the new branch's reflog; see linkgit:git-branch[1] for
101 When switching branches,
102 if you have local modifications to one or more files that
103 are different between the current branch and the branch to
104 which you are switching, the command refuses to switch
105 branches in order to preserve your modifications in context.
106 However, with this option, a three-way merge between the current
107 branch, your working tree contents, and the new branch
108 is done, and you will be on the new branch.
110 When a merge conflict happens, the index entries for conflicting
111 paths are left unmerged, and you need to resolve the conflicts
112 and mark the resolved paths with `git add` (or `git rm` if the merge
113 should result in deletion of the path).
115 When checking out paths from the index, this option lets you recreate
116 the conflicted merge in the specified paths.
119 The same as --merge option above, but changes the way the
120 conflicting hunks are presented, overriding the
121 merge.conflictstyle configuration variable. Possible values are
122 "merge" (default) and "diff3" (in addition to what is shown by
123 "merge" style, shows the original contents).
127 Interactively select hunks in the difference between the
128 <tree-ish> (or the index, if unspecified) and the working
129 tree. The chosen hunks are then applied in reverse to the
130 working tree (and if a <tree-ish> was specified, the index).
132 This means that you can use `git checkout -p` to selectively discard
133 edits from your current working tree.
136 Branch to checkout; if it refers to a branch (i.e., a name that,
137 when prepended with "refs/heads/", is a valid ref), then that
138 branch is checked out. Otherwise, if it refers to a valid
139 commit, your HEAD becomes "detached" and you are no longer on
140 any branch (see below for details).
142 As a special case, the `"@\{-N\}"` syntax for the N-th last branch
143 checks out the branch (instead of detaching). You may also specify
144 `-` which is synonymous with `"@\{-1\}"`.
147 Name for the new branch.
150 The name of a commit at which to start the new branch; see
151 linkgit:git-branch[1] for details. Defaults to HEAD.
154 Tree to checkout from (when paths are given). If not specified,
155 the index will be used.
162 It is sometimes useful to be able to 'checkout' a commit that is
163 not at the tip of one of your branches. The most obvious
164 example is to check out the commit at a tagged official release
168 $ git checkout v2.6.18
171 Earlier versions of git did not allow this and asked you to
172 create a temporary branch using the `-b` option, but starting from
173 version 1.5.0, the above command 'detaches' your HEAD from the
174 current branch and directly points at the commit named by the tag
175 (`v2.6.18` in the example above).
177 You can use all git commands while in this state. You can use
178 `git reset --hard $othercommit` to further move around, for
179 example. You can make changes and create a new commit on top of
180 a detached HEAD. You can even create a merge by using `git
183 The state you are in while your HEAD is detached is not recorded
184 by any branch (which is natural --- you are not on any branch).
185 What this means is that you can discard your temporary commits
186 and merges by switching back to an existing branch (e.g. `git
187 checkout master`), and a later `git prune` or `git gc` would
188 garbage-collect them. If you did this by mistake, you can ask
189 the reflog for HEAD where you were, e.g.
199 . The following sequence checks out the `master` branch, reverts
200 the `Makefile` to two revisions back, deletes hello.c by
201 mistake, and gets it back from the index.
204 $ git checkout master <1>
205 $ git checkout master~2 Makefile <2>
207 $ git checkout hello.c <3>
211 <2> take a file out of another commit
212 <3> restore hello.c from the index
214 If you have an unfortunate branch that is named `hello.c`, this
215 step would be confused as an instruction to switch to that branch.
216 You should instead write:
219 $ git checkout -- hello.c
222 . After working in the wrong branch, switching to the correct
223 branch would be done using:
226 $ git checkout mytopic
229 However, your "wrong" branch and correct "mytopic" branch may
230 differ in files that you have modified locally, in which case
231 the above checkout would fail like this:
234 $ git checkout mytopic
235 fatal: Entry 'frotz' not uptodate. Cannot merge.
238 You can give the `-m` flag to the command, which would try a
242 $ git checkout -m mytopic
246 After this three-way merge, the local modifications are _not_
247 registered in your index file, so `git diff` would show you what
248 changes you made since the tip of the new branch.
250 . When a merge conflict happens during switching branches with
251 the `-m` option, you would see something like this:
254 $ git checkout -m mytopic
256 ERROR: Merge conflict in frotz
257 fatal: merge program failed
260 At this point, `git diff` shows the changes cleanly merged as in
261 the previous example, as well as the changes in the conflicted
262 files. Edit and resolve the conflict and mark it resolved with
273 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
277 Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
281 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite