aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Documentation/git-branch.txt
blob: 31ba7f2ade7643d60e0bf1b0bb70271afe16ddeb (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
git-branch(1)
=============

NAME
----
git-branch - List, create, or delete branches

SYNOPSIS
--------
[verse]
'git branch' [--color | --no-color] [-r | -a]
	[-v [--abbrev=<length> | --no-abbrev]]
	[(--merged | --no-merged | --contains) [<commit>]]
'git branch' [--track | --no-track] [-l] [-f] <branchname> [<start-point>]
'git branch' (-m | -M) [<oldbranch>] <newbranch>
'git branch' (-d | -D) [-r] <branchname>...

DESCRIPTION
-----------

With no arguments, existing branches are listed and the current branch will
be highlighted with an asterisk.  Option `-r` causes the remote-tracking
branches to be listed, and option `-a` shows both.

With `--contains`, shows only the branches that contain the named commit
(in other words, the branches whose tip commits are descendants of the
named commit).  With `--merged`, only branches merged into the named
commit (i.e. the branches whose tip commits are reachable from the named
commit) will be listed.  With `--no-merged` only branches not merged into
the named commit will be listed.  If the <commit> argument is missing it
defaults to 'HEAD' (i.e. the tip of the current branch).

In the command's second form, a new branch named <branchname> will be created.
It will start out with a head equal to the one given as <start-point>.
If no <start-point> is given, the branch will be created with a head
equal to that of the currently checked out branch.

Note that this will create the new branch, but it will not switch the
working tree to it; use "git checkout <newbranch>" to switch to the
new branch.

When a local branch is started off a remote branch, git sets up the
branch so that 'git-pull' will appropriately merge from
the remote branch. This behavior may be changed via the global
`branch.autosetupmerge` configuration flag. That setting can be
overridden by using the `--track` and `--no-track` options.

With a '-m' or '-M' option, <oldbranch> will be renamed to <newbranch>.
If <oldbranch> had a corresponding reflog, it is renamed to match
<newbranch>, and a reflog entry is created to remember the branch
renaming. If <newbranch> exists, -M must be used to force the rename
to happen.

With a `-d` or `-D` option, `<branchname>` will be deleted.  You may
specify more than one branch for deletion.  If the branch currently
has a reflog then the reflog will also be deleted.

Use -r together with -d to delete remote-tracking branches. Note, that it
only makes sense to delete remote-tracking branches if they no longer exist
in the remote repository or if 'git-fetch' was configured not to fetch
them again. See also the 'prune' subcommand of linkgit:git-remote[1] for a
way to clean up all obsolete remote-tracking branches.


OPTIONS
-------
-d::
	Delete a branch. The branch must be fully merged in HEAD.

-D::
	Delete a branch irrespective of its merged status.

-l::
	Create the branch's reflog.  This activates recording of
	all changes made to the branch ref, enabling use of date
	based sha1 expressions such as "<branchname>@\{yesterday}".

-f::
	Reset <branchname> to <startpoint> if <branchname> exists
	already. Without `-f` 'git-branch' refuses to change an existing branch.

-m::
	Move/rename a branch and the corresponding reflog.

-M::
	Move/rename a branch even if the new branch name already exists.

--color::
	Color branches to highlight current, local, and remote branches.

--no-color::
	Turn off branch colors, even when the configuration file gives the
	default to color output.

-r::
	List or delete (if used with -d) the remote-tracking branches.

-a::
	List both remote-tracking branches and local branches.

-v::
--verbose::
	Show sha1 and commit subject line for each head.

--abbrev=<length>::
	Alter the sha1's minimum display length in the output listing.
	The default value is 7.

--no-abbrev::
	Display the full sha1s in the output listing rather than abbreviating them.

--track::
	When creating a new branch, set up the configuration so that 'git-pull'
	will automatically retrieve data from the start point, which must be
	a branch. Use this if you always pull from the same upstream branch
	into the new branch, and if you do not want to use "git pull
	<repository> <refspec>" explicitly. This behavior is the default
	when the start point is a remote branch. Set the
	branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable to `false` if you want
	'git-checkout' and 'git-branch' to always behave as if '--no-track' were
	given. Set it to `always` if you want this behavior when the
	start-point is either a local or remote branch.

--no-track::
	Ignore the branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable.

--contains <commit>::
	Only list branches which contain the specified commit.

--merged::
	Only list branches which are fully contained by HEAD.

--no-merged::
	Do not list branches which are fully contained by HEAD.

<branchname>::
	The name of the branch to create or delete.
	The new branch name must pass all checks defined by
	linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1].  Some of these checks
	may restrict the characters allowed in a branch name.

<start-point>::
	The new branch will be created with a HEAD equal to this.  It may
	be given as a branch name, a commit-id, or a tag.  If this option
	is omitted, the current branch is assumed.

<oldbranch>::
	The name of an existing branch to rename.

<newbranch>::
	The new name for an existing branch. The same restrictions as for
	<branchname> apply.


Examples
--------

Start development from a known tag::
+
------------
$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6
$ cd my2.6
$ git branch my2.6.14 v2.6.14   <1>
$ git checkout my2.6.14
------------
+
<1> This step and the next one could be combined into a single step with
"checkout -b my2.6.14 v2.6.14".

Delete an unneeded branch::
+
------------
$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/.../git.git my.git
$ cd my.git
$ git branch -d -r origin/todo origin/html origin/man   <1>
$ git branch -D test                                    <2>
------------
+
<1> Delete the remote-tracking branches "todo", "html" and "man". The next
'fetch' or 'pull' will create them again unless you configure them not to.
See linkgit:git-fetch[1].
<2> Delete the "test" branch even if the "master" branch (or whichever branch
is currently checked out) does not have all commits from the test branch.


Notes
-----

If you are creating a branch that you want to checkout immediately, it is
easier to use the git checkout command with its `-b` option to create
a branch and check it out with a single command.

The options `--contains`, `--merged` and `--no-merged` serve three related
but different purposes:

- `--contains <commit>` is used to find all branches which will need
  special attention if <commit> were to be rebased or amended, since those
  branches contain the specified <commit>.

- `--merged` is used to find all branches which can be safely deleted,
  since those branches are fully contained by HEAD.

- `--no-merged` is used to find branches which are candidates for merging
  into HEAD, since those branches are not fully contained by HEAD.

Author
------
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

Documentation
--------------
Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.

GIT
---
Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite