git-checkout.html

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 734 </head>
 735 <body class="manpage">
 736 <div id="header">
 737 <h1>
 738 git-checkout(1) Manual Page
 739 </h1>
 740 <h2>NAME</h2>
 741 <div class="sectionbody">
 742 <p>git-checkout -
 743    Switch branches or restore working tree files
 744 </p>
 745 </div>
 746 </div>
 747 <div id="content">
 748 <div class="sect1">
 749 <h2 id="_synopsis">SYNOPSIS</h2>
 750 <div class="sectionbody">
 751 <div class="verseblock">
 752 <pre class="content"><em>git checkout</em> [-q] [-f] [-m] [&lt;branch&gt;]
 753 <em>git checkout</em> [-q] [-f] [-m] --detach [&lt;branch&gt;]
 754 <em>git checkout</em> [-q] [-f] [-m] [--detach] &lt;commit&gt;
 755 <em>git checkout</em> [-q] [-f] [-m] [[-b|-B|--orphan] &lt;new-branch&gt;] [&lt;start-point&gt;]
 756 <em>git checkout</em> [-f] &lt;tree-ish&gt; [--] &lt;pathspec&gt;&#8230;
 757 <em>git checkout</em> [-f] &lt;tree-ish&gt; --pathspec-from-file=&lt;file&gt; [--pathspec-file-nul]
 758 <em>git checkout</em> [-f|--ours|--theirs|-m|--conflict=&lt;style&gt;] [--] &lt;pathspec&gt;&#8230;
 759 <em>git checkout</em> [-f|--ours|--theirs|-m|--conflict=&lt;style&gt;] --pathspec-from-file=&lt;file&gt; [--pathspec-file-nul]
 760 <em>git checkout</em> (-p|--patch) [&lt;tree-ish&gt;] [--] [&lt;pathspec&gt;&#8230;]</pre>
 761 <div class="attribution">
 762 </div></div>
 763 </div>
 764 </div>
 765 <div class="sect1">
 766 <h2 id="_description">DESCRIPTION</h2>
 767 <div class="sectionbody">
 768 <div class="paragraph"><p>Updates files in the working tree to match the version in the index
 769 or the specified tree.  If no pathspec was given, <em>git checkout</em> will
 770 also update <code>HEAD</code> to set the specified branch as the current
 771 branch.</p></div>
 772 <div class="dlist"><dl>
 773 <dt class="hdlist1">
 774 <em>git checkout</em> [&lt;branch&gt;]
 775 </dt>
 776 <dd>
 777 <p>
 778         To prepare for working on <code>&lt;branch&gt;</code>, switch to it by updating
 779         the index and the files in the working tree, and by pointing
 780         <code>HEAD</code> at the branch. Local modifications to the files in the
 781         working tree are kept, so that they can be committed to the
 782         <code>&lt;branch&gt;</code>.
 783 </p>
 784 <div class="paragraph"><p>If <code>&lt;branch&gt;</code> is not found but there does exist a tracking branch in
 785 exactly one remote (call it <code>&lt;remote&gt;</code>) with a matching name and
 786 <code>--no-guess</code> is not specified, treat as equivalent to</p></div>
 787 <div class="listingblock">
 788 <div class="content">
 789 <pre><code>$ git checkout -b &lt;branch&gt; --track &lt;remote&gt;/&lt;branch&gt;</code></pre>
 790 </div></div>
 791 <div class="paragraph"><p>You could omit <code>&lt;branch&gt;</code>, in which case the command degenerates to
 792 "check out the current branch", which is a glorified no-op with
 793 rather expensive side-effects to show only the tracking information,
 794 if it exists, for the current branch.</p></div>
 795 </dd>
 796 <dt class="hdlist1">
 797 <em>git checkout</em> -b|-B &lt;new-branch&gt; [&lt;start-point&gt;]
 798 </dt>
 799 <dd>
 800 <p>
 801         Specifying <code>-b</code> causes a new branch to be created as if
 802         <a href="git-branch.html">git-branch(1)</a> were called and then checked out.  In
 803         this case you can use the <code>--track</code> or <code>--no-track</code> options,
 804         which will be passed to <em>git branch</em>.  As a convenience,
 805         <code>--track</code> without <code>-b</code> implies branch creation; see the
 806         description of <code>--track</code> below.
 807 </p>
 808 <div class="paragraph"><p>If <code>-B</code> is given, <code>&lt;new-branch&gt;</code> is created if it doesn&#8217;t exist; otherwise, it
 809 is reset. This is the transactional equivalent of</p></div>
 810 <div class="listingblock">
 811 <div class="content">
 812 <pre><code>$ git branch -f &lt;branch&gt; [&lt;start-point&gt;]
 813 $ git checkout &lt;branch&gt;</code></pre>
 814 </div></div>
 815 <div class="paragraph"><p>that is to say, the branch is not reset/created unless "git checkout" is
 816 successful (e.g., when the branch is in use in another worktree, not
 817 just the current branch stays the same, but the branch is not reset to
 818 the start-point, either).</p></div>
 819 </dd>
 820 <dt class="hdlist1">
 821 <em>git checkout</em> --detach [&lt;branch&gt;]
 822 </dt>
 823 <dt class="hdlist1">
 824 <em>git checkout</em> [--detach] &lt;commit&gt;
 825 </dt>
 826 <dd>
 827 <p>
 828         Prepare to work on top of <code>&lt;commit&gt;</code>, by detaching <code>HEAD</code> at it
 829         (see "DETACHED HEAD" section), and updating the index and the
 830         files in the working tree.  Local modifications to the files
 831         in the working tree are kept, so that the resulting working
 832         tree will be the state recorded in the commit plus the local
 833         modifications.
 834 </p>
 835 <div class="paragraph"><p>When the <code>&lt;commit&gt;</code> argument is a branch name, the <code>--detach</code> option can
 836 be used to detach <code>HEAD</code> at the tip of the branch (<code>git checkout
 837 &lt;branch&gt;</code> would check out that branch without detaching <code>HEAD</code>).</p></div>
 838 <div class="paragraph"><p>Omitting <code>&lt;branch&gt;</code> detaches <code>HEAD</code> at the tip of the current branch.</p></div>
 839 </dd>
 840 <dt class="hdlist1">
 841 <em>git checkout</em> [-f|--ours|--theirs|-m|--conflict=&lt;style&gt;] [&lt;tree-ish&gt;] [--] &lt;pathspec&gt;&#8230;
 842 </dt>
 843 <dt class="hdlist1">
 844 <em>git checkout</em> [-f|--ours|--theirs|-m|--conflict=&lt;style&gt;] [&lt;tree-ish&gt;] --pathspec-from-file=&lt;file&gt; [--pathspec-file-nul]
 845 </dt>
 846 <dd>
 847 <p>
 848         Overwrite the contents of the files that match the pathspec.
 849         When the <code>&lt;tree-ish&gt;</code> (most often a commit) is not given,
 850         overwrite working tree with the contents in the index.
 851         When the <code>&lt;tree-ish&gt;</code> is given, overwrite both the index and
 852         the working tree with the contents at the <code>&lt;tree-ish&gt;</code>.
 853 </p>
 854 <div class="paragraph"><p>The index may contain unmerged entries because of a previous failed merge.
 855 By default, if you try to check out such an entry from the index, the
 856 checkout operation will fail and nothing will be checked out.
 857 Using <code>-f</code> will ignore these unmerged entries.  The contents from a
 858 specific side of the merge can be checked out of the index by
 859 using <code>--ours</code> or <code>--theirs</code>.  With <code>-m</code>, changes made to the working tree
 860 file can be discarded to re-create the original conflicted merge result.</p></div>
 861 </dd>
 862 <dt class="hdlist1">
 863 <em>git checkout</em> (-p|--patch) [&lt;tree-ish&gt;] [--] [&lt;pathspec&gt;&#8230;]
 864 </dt>
 865 <dd>
 866 <p>
 867         This is similar to the previous mode, but lets you use the
 868         interactive interface to show the "diff" output and choose which
 869         hunks to use in the result.  See below for the description of
 870         <code>--patch</code> option.
 871 </p>
 872 </dd>
 873 </dl></div>
 874 </div>
 875 </div>
 876 <div class="sect1">
 877 <h2 id="_options">OPTIONS</h2>
 878 <div class="sectionbody">
 879 <div class="dlist"><dl>
 880 <dt class="hdlist1">
 881 -q
 882 </dt>
 883 <dt class="hdlist1">
 884 --quiet
 885 </dt>
 886 <dd>
 887 <p>
 888         Quiet, suppress feedback messages.
 889 </p>
 890 </dd>
 891 <dt class="hdlist1">
 892 --progress
 893 </dt>
 894 <dt class="hdlist1">
 895 --no-progress
 896 </dt>
 897 <dd>
 898 <p>
 899         Progress status is reported on the standard error stream
 900         by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless <code>--quiet</code>
 901         is specified. This flag enables progress reporting even if not
 902         attached to a terminal, regardless of <code>--quiet</code>.
 903 </p>
 904 </dd>
 905 <dt class="hdlist1">
 906 -f
 907 </dt>
 908 <dt class="hdlist1">
 909 --force
 910 </dt>
 911 <dd>
 912 <p>
 913         When switching branches, proceed even if the index or the
 914         working tree differs from <code>HEAD</code>, and even if there are untracked
 915         files in the way.  This is used to throw away local changes and
 916         any untracked files or directories that are in the way.
 917 </p>
 918 <div class="paragraph"><p>When checking out paths from the index, do not fail upon unmerged
 919 entries; instead, unmerged entries are ignored.</p></div>
 920 </dd>
 921 <dt class="hdlist1">
 922 --ours
 923 </dt>
 924 <dt class="hdlist1">
 925 --theirs
 926 </dt>
 927 <dd>
 928 <p>
 929         When checking out paths from the index, check out stage #2
 930         (<em>ours</em>) or #3 (<em>theirs</em>) for unmerged paths.
 931 </p>
 932 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that during <code>git rebase</code> and <code>git pull --rebase</code>, <em>ours</em> and
 933 <em>theirs</em> may appear swapped; <code>--ours</code> gives the version from the
 934 branch the changes are rebased onto, while <code>--theirs</code> gives the
 935 version from the branch that holds your work that is being rebased.</p></div>
 936 <div class="paragraph"><p>This is because <code>rebase</code> is used in a workflow that treats the
 937 history at the remote as the shared canonical one, and treats the
 938 work done on the branch you are rebasing as the third-party work to
 939 be integrated, and you are temporarily assuming the role of the
 940 keeper of the canonical history during the rebase.  As the keeper of
 941 the canonical history, you need to view the history from the remote
 942 as <code>ours</code> (i.e. "our shared canonical history"), while what you did
 943 on your side branch as <code>theirs</code> (i.e. "one contributor&#8217;s work on top
 944 of it").</p></div>
 945 </dd>
 946 <dt class="hdlist1">
 947 -b &lt;new-branch&gt;
 948 </dt>
 949 <dd>
 950 <p>
 951         Create a new branch named <code>&lt;new-branch&gt;</code>, start it at
 952         <code>&lt;start-point&gt;</code>, and check the resulting branch out;
 953         see <a href="git-branch.html">git-branch(1)</a> for details.
 954 </p>
 955 </dd>
 956 <dt class="hdlist1">
 957 -B &lt;new-branch&gt;
 958 </dt>
 959 <dd>
 960 <p>
 961         Creates the branch <code>&lt;new-branch&gt;</code>, start it at <code>&lt;start-point&gt;</code>;
 962         if it already exists, then reset it to <code>&lt;start-point&gt;</code>. And then
 963         check the resulting branch out.  This is equivalent to running
 964         "git branch" with "-f" followed by "git checkout" of that branch;
 965         see <a href="git-branch.html">git-branch(1)</a> for details.
 966 </p>
 967 </dd>
 968 <dt class="hdlist1">
 969 -t
 970 </dt>
 971 <dt class="hdlist1">
 972 --track[=(direct|inherit)]
 973 </dt>
 974 <dd>
 975 <p>
 976         When creating a new branch, set up "upstream" configuration. See
 977         "--track" in <a href="git-branch.html">git-branch(1)</a> for details.
 978 </p>
 979 <div class="paragraph"><p>If no <code>-b</code> option is given, the name of the new branch will be
 980 derived from the remote-tracking branch, by looking at the local part of
 981 the refspec configured for the corresponding remote, and then stripping
 982 the initial part up to the "*".
 983 This would tell us to use <code>hack</code> as the local branch when branching
 984 off of <code>origin/hack</code> (or <code>remotes/origin/hack</code>, or even
 985 <code>refs/remotes/origin/hack</code>).  If the given name has no slash, or the above
 986 guessing results in an empty name, the guessing is aborted.  You can
 987 explicitly give a name with <code>-b</code> in such a case.</p></div>
 988 </dd>
 989 <dt class="hdlist1">
 990 --no-track
 991 </dt>
 992 <dd>
 993 <p>
 994         Do not set up "upstream" configuration, even if the
 995         <code>branch.autoSetupMerge</code> configuration variable is true.
 996 </p>
 997 </dd>
 998 <dt class="hdlist1">
 999 --guess
1000 </dt>
1001 <dt class="hdlist1">
1002 --no-guess
1003 </dt>
1004 <dd>
1005 <p>
1006         If <code>&lt;branch&gt;</code> is not found but there does exist a tracking
1007         branch in exactly one remote (call it <code>&lt;remote&gt;</code>) with a
1008         matching name, treat as equivalent to
1009 </p>
1010 <div class="listingblock">
1011 <div class="content">
1012 <pre><code>$ git checkout -b &lt;branch&gt; --track &lt;remote&gt;/&lt;branch&gt;</code></pre>
1013 </div></div>
1014 <div class="paragraph"><p>If the branch exists in multiple remotes and one of them is named by
1015 the <code>checkout.defaultRemote</code> configuration variable, we&#8217;ll use that
1016 one for the purposes of disambiguation, even if the <code>&lt;branch&gt;</code> isn&#8217;t
1017 unique across all remotes. Set it to
1018 e.g. <code>checkout.defaultRemote=origin</code> to always checkout remote
1019 branches from there if <code>&lt;branch&gt;</code> is ambiguous but exists on the
1020 <em>origin</em> remote. See also <code>checkout.defaultRemote</code> in
1021 <a href="git-config.html">git-config(1)</a>.</p></div>
1022 <div class="paragraph"><p><code>--guess</code> is the default behavior. Use <code>--no-guess</code> to disable it.</p></div>
1023 <div class="paragraph"><p>The default behavior can be set via the <code>checkout.guess</code> configuration
1024 variable.</p></div>
1025 </dd>
1026 <dt class="hdlist1">
1027 -l
1028 </dt>
1029 <dd>
1030 <p>
1031         Create the new branch&#8217;s reflog; see <a href="git-branch.html">git-branch(1)</a> for
1032         details.
1033 </p>
1034 </dd>
1035 <dt class="hdlist1">
1036 -d
1037 </dt>
1038 <dt class="hdlist1">
1039 --detach
1040 </dt>
1041 <dd>
1042 <p>
1043         Rather than checking out a branch to work on it, check out a
1044         commit for inspection and discardable experiments.
1045         This is the default behavior of <code>git checkout &lt;commit&gt;</code> when
1046         <code>&lt;commit&gt;</code> is not a branch name.  See the "DETACHED HEAD" section
1047         below for details.
1048 </p>
1049 </dd>
1050 <dt class="hdlist1">
1051 --orphan &lt;new-branch&gt;
1052 </dt>
1053 <dd>
1054 <p>
1055         Create a new unborn branch, named <code>&lt;new-branch&gt;</code>, started from
1056         <code>&lt;start-point&gt;</code> and switch to it.  The first commit made on this
1057         new branch will have no parents and it will be the root of a new
1058         history totally disconnected from all the other branches and
1059         commits.
1060 </p>
1061 <div class="paragraph"><p>The index and the working tree are adjusted as if you had previously run
1062 <code>git checkout &lt;start-point&gt;</code>.  This allows you to start a new history
1063 that records a set of paths similar to <code>&lt;start-point&gt;</code> by easily running
1064 <code>git commit -a</code> to make the root commit.</p></div>
1065 <div class="paragraph"><p>This can be useful when you want to publish the tree from a commit
1066 without exposing its full history. You might want to do this to publish
1067 an open source branch of a project whose current tree is "clean", but
1068 whose full history contains proprietary or otherwise encumbered bits of
1069 code.</p></div>
1070 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you want to start a disconnected history that records a set of paths
1071 that is totally different from the one of <code>&lt;start-point&gt;</code>, then you should
1072 clear the index and the working tree right after creating the orphan
1073 branch by running <code>git rm -rf .</code> from the top level of the working tree.
1074 Afterwards you will be ready to prepare your new files, repopulating the
1075 working tree, by copying them from elsewhere, extracting a tarball, etc.</p></div>
1076 </dd>
1077 <dt class="hdlist1">
1078 --ignore-skip-worktree-bits
1079 </dt>
1080 <dd>
1081 <p>
1082         In sparse checkout mode, <code>git checkout -- &lt;paths&gt;</code> would
1083         update only entries matched by <code>&lt;paths&gt;</code> and sparse patterns
1084         in <code>$GIT_DIR/info/sparse-checkout</code>. This option ignores
1085         the sparse patterns and adds back any files in <code>&lt;paths&gt;</code>.
1086 </p>
1087 </dd>
1088 <dt class="hdlist1">
1089 -m
1090 </dt>
1091 <dt class="hdlist1">
1092 --merge
1093 </dt>
1094 <dd>
1095 <p>
1096         When switching branches,
1097         if you have local modifications to one or more files that
1098         are different between the current branch and the branch to
1099         which you are switching, the command refuses to switch
1100         branches in order to preserve your modifications in context.
1101         However, with this option, a three-way merge between the current
1102         branch, your working tree contents, and the new branch
1103         is done, and you will be on the new branch.
1104 </p>
1105 <div class="paragraph"><p>When a merge conflict happens, the index entries for conflicting
1106 paths are left unmerged, and you need to resolve the conflicts
1107 and mark the resolved paths with <code>git add</code> (or <code>git rm</code> if the merge
1108 should result in deletion of the path).</p></div>
1109 <div class="paragraph"><p>When checking out paths from the index, this option lets you recreate
1110 the conflicted merge in the specified paths.  This option cannot be
1111 used when checking out paths from a tree-ish.</p></div>
1112 <div class="paragraph"><p>When switching branches with <code>--merge</code>, staged changes may be lost.</p></div>
1113 </dd>
1114 <dt class="hdlist1">
1115 --conflict=&lt;style&gt;
1116 </dt>
1117 <dd>
1118 <p>
1119         The same as <code>--merge</code> option above, but changes the way the
1120         conflicting hunks are presented, overriding the
1121         <code>merge.conflictStyle</code> configuration variable.  Possible values are
1122         "merge" (default), "diff3", and "zdiff3".
1123 </p>
1124 </dd>
1125 <dt class="hdlist1">
1126 -p
1127 </dt>
1128 <dt class="hdlist1">
1129 --patch
1130 </dt>
1131 <dd>
1132 <p>
1133         Interactively select hunks in the difference between the
1134         <code>&lt;tree-ish&gt;</code> (or the index, if unspecified) and the working
1135         tree.  The chosen hunks are then applied in reverse to the
1136         working tree (and if a <code>&lt;tree-ish&gt;</code> was specified, the index).
1137 </p>
1138 <div class="paragraph"><p>This means that you can use <code>git checkout -p</code> to selectively discard
1139 edits from your current working tree. See the &#8220;Interactive Mode&#8221;
1140 section of <a href="git-add.html">git-add(1)</a> to learn how to operate the <code>--patch</code> mode.</p></div>
1141 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that this option uses the no overlay mode by default (see also
1142 <code>--overlay</code>), and currently doesn&#8217;t support overlay mode.</p></div>
1143 </dd>
1144 <dt class="hdlist1">
1145 --ignore-other-worktrees
1146 </dt>
1147 <dd>
1148 <p>
1149         <code>git checkout</code> refuses when the wanted ref is already checked
1150         out by another worktree. This option makes it check the ref
1151         out anyway. In other words, the ref can be held by more than one
1152         worktree.
1153 </p>
1154 </dd>
1155 <dt class="hdlist1">
1156 --overwrite-ignore
1157 </dt>
1158 <dt class="hdlist1">
1159 --no-overwrite-ignore
1160 </dt>
1161 <dd>
1162 <p>
1163         Silently overwrite ignored files when switching branches. This
1164         is the default behavior. Use <code>--no-overwrite-ignore</code> to abort
1165         the operation when the new branch contains ignored files.
1166 </p>
1167 </dd>
1168 <dt class="hdlist1">
1169 --recurse-submodules
1170 </dt>
1171 <dt class="hdlist1">
1172 --no-recurse-submodules
1173 </dt>
1174 <dd>
1175 <p>
1176         Using <code>--recurse-submodules</code> will update the content of all active
1177         submodules according to the commit recorded in the superproject. If
1178         local modifications in a submodule would be overwritten the checkout
1179         will fail unless <code>-f</code> is used. If nothing (or <code>--no-recurse-submodules</code>)
1180         is used, submodules working trees will not be updated.
1181         Just like <a href="git-submodule.html">git-submodule(1)</a>, this will detach <code>HEAD</code> of the
1182         submodule.
1183 </p>
1184 </dd>
1185 <dt class="hdlist1">
1186 --overlay
1187 </dt>
1188 <dt class="hdlist1">
1189 --no-overlay
1190 </dt>
1191 <dd>
1192 <p>
1193         In the default overlay mode, <code>git checkout</code> never
1194         removes files from the index or the working tree.  When
1195         specifying <code>--no-overlay</code>, files that appear in the index and
1196         working tree, but not in <code>&lt;tree-ish&gt;</code> are removed, to make them
1197         match <code>&lt;tree-ish&gt;</code> exactly.
1198 </p>
1199 </dd>
1200 <dt class="hdlist1">
1201 --pathspec-from-file=&lt;file&gt;
1202 </dt>
1203 <dd>
1204 <p>
1205         Pathspec is passed in <code>&lt;file&gt;</code> instead of commandline args. If
1206         <code>&lt;file&gt;</code> is exactly <code>-</code> then standard input is used. Pathspec
1207         elements are separated by LF or CR/LF. Pathspec elements can be
1208         quoted as explained for the configuration variable <code>core.quotePath</code>
1209         (see <a href="git-config.html">git-config(1)</a>). See also <code>--pathspec-file-nul</code> and
1210         global <code>--literal-pathspecs</code>.
1211 </p>
1212 </dd>
1213 <dt class="hdlist1">
1214 --pathspec-file-nul
1215 </dt>
1216 <dd>
1217 <p>
1218         Only meaningful with <code>--pathspec-from-file</code>. Pathspec elements are
1219         separated with NUL character and all other characters are taken
1220         literally (including newlines and quotes).
1221 </p>
1222 </dd>
1223 <dt class="hdlist1">
1224 &lt;branch&gt;
1225 </dt>
1226 <dd>
1227 <p>
1228         Branch to checkout; if it refers to a branch (i.e., a name that,
1229         when prepended with "refs/heads/", is a valid ref), then that
1230         branch is checked out. Otherwise, if it refers to a valid
1231         commit, your <code>HEAD</code> becomes "detached" and you are no longer on
1232         any branch (see below for details).
1233 </p>
1234 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can use the <code>@{-N}</code> syntax to refer to the N-th last
1235 branch/commit checked out using "git checkout" operation. You may
1236 also specify <code>-</code> which is synonymous to <code>@{-1}</code>.</p></div>
1237 <div class="paragraph"><p>As a special case, you may use <code>A...B</code> as a shortcut for the
1238 merge base of <code>A</code> and <code>B</code> if there is exactly one merge base. You can
1239 leave out at most one of <code>A</code> and <code>B</code>, in which case it defaults to <code>HEAD</code>.</p></div>
1240 </dd>
1241 <dt class="hdlist1">
1242 &lt;new-branch&gt;
1243 </dt>
1244 <dd>
1245 <p>
1246         Name for the new branch.
1247 </p>
1248 </dd>
1249 <dt class="hdlist1">
1250 &lt;start-point&gt;
1251 </dt>
1252 <dd>
1253 <p>
1254         The name of a commit at which to start the new branch; see
1255         <a href="git-branch.html">git-branch(1)</a> for details. Defaults to <code>HEAD</code>.
1256 </p>
1257 <div class="paragraph"><p>As a special case, you may use <code>"A...B"</code> as a shortcut for the
1258 merge base of <code>A</code> and <code>B</code> if there is exactly one merge base. You can
1259 leave out at most one of <code>A</code> and <code>B</code>, in which case it defaults to <code>HEAD</code>.</p></div>
1260 </dd>
1261 <dt class="hdlist1">
1262 &lt;tree-ish&gt;
1263 </dt>
1264 <dd>
1265 <p>
1266         Tree to checkout from (when paths are given). If not specified,
1267         the index will be used.
1268 </p>
1269 <div class="paragraph"><p>As a special case, you may use <code>"A...B"</code> as a shortcut for the
1270 merge base of <code>A</code> and <code>B</code> if there is exactly one merge base. You can
1271 leave out at most one of <code>A</code> and <code>B</code>, in which case it defaults to <code>HEAD</code>.</p></div>
1272 </dd>
1273 <dt class="hdlist1">
1274 --
1275 </dt>
1276 <dd>
1277 <p>
1278         Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
1279 </p>
1280 </dd>
1281 <dt class="hdlist1">
1282 &lt;pathspec&gt;&#8230;
1283 </dt>
1284 <dd>
1285 <p>
1286         Limits the paths affected by the operation.
1287 </p>
1288 <div class="paragraph"><p>For more details, see the <em>pathspec</em> entry in <a href="gitglossary.html">gitglossary(7)</a>.</p></div>
1289 </dd>
1290 </dl></div>
1291 </div>
1292 </div>
1293 <div class="sect1">
1294 <h2 id="_detached_head">DETACHED HEAD</h2>
1295 <div class="sectionbody">
1296 <div class="paragraph"><p><code>HEAD</code> normally refers to a named branch (e.g. <code>master</code>). Meanwhile, each
1297 branch refers to a specific commit. Let&#8217;s look at a repo with three
1298 commits, one of them tagged, and with branch <code>master</code> checked out:</p></div>
1299 <div class="listingblock">
1300 <div class="content">
1301 <pre><code>           HEAD (refers to branch 'master')
1302             |
1303             v
1304 a---b---c  branch 'master' (refers to commit 'c')
1305     ^
1306     |
1307   tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b')</code></pre>
1308 </div></div>
1309 <div class="paragraph"><p>When a commit is created in this state, the branch is updated to refer to
1310 the new commit. Specifically, <em>git commit</em> creates a new commit <code>d</code>, whose
1311 parent is commit <code>c</code>, and then updates branch <code>master</code> to refer to new
1312 commit <code>d</code>. <code>HEAD</code> still refers to branch <code>master</code> and so indirectly now refers
1313 to commit <code>d</code>:</p></div>
1314 <div class="listingblock">
1315 <div class="content">
1316 <pre><code>$ edit; git add; git commit
1317
1318                HEAD (refers to branch 'master')
1319                 |
1320                 v
1321 a---b---c---d  branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd')
1322     ^
1323     |
1324   tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b')</code></pre>
1325 </div></div>
1326 <div class="paragraph"><p>It is sometimes useful to be able to checkout a commit that is not at
1327 the tip of any named branch, or even to create a new commit that is not
1328 referenced by a named branch. Let&#8217;s look at what happens when we
1329 checkout commit <code>b</code> (here we show two ways this may be done):</p></div>
1330 <div class="listingblock">
1331 <div class="content">
1332 <pre><code>$ git checkout v2.0  # or
1333 $ git checkout master^^
1334
1335    HEAD (refers to commit 'b')
1336     |
1337     v
1338 a---b---c---d  branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd')
1339     ^
1340     |
1341   tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b')</code></pre>
1342 </div></div>
1343 <div class="paragraph"><p>Notice that regardless of which checkout command we use, <code>HEAD</code> now refers
1344 directly to commit <code>b</code>. This is known as being in detached <code>HEAD</code> state.
1345 It means simply that <code>HEAD</code> refers to a specific commit, as opposed to
1346 referring to a named branch. Let&#8217;s see what happens when we create a commit:</p></div>
1347 <div class="listingblock">
1348 <div class="content">
1349 <pre><code>$ edit; git add; git commit
1350
1351      HEAD (refers to commit 'e')
1352       |
1353       v
1354       e
1355      /
1356 a---b---c---d  branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd')
1357     ^
1358     |
1359   tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b')</code></pre>
1360 </div></div>
1361 <div class="paragraph"><p>There is now a new commit <code>e</code>, but it is referenced only by <code>HEAD</code>. We can
1362 of course add yet another commit in this state:</p></div>
1363 <div class="listingblock">
1364 <div class="content">
1365 <pre><code>$ edit; git add; git commit
1366
1367          HEAD (refers to commit 'f')
1368           |
1369           v
1370       e---f
1371      /
1372 a---b---c---d  branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd')
1373     ^
1374     |
1375   tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b')</code></pre>
1376 </div></div>
1377 <div class="paragraph"><p>In fact, we can perform all the normal Git operations. But, let&#8217;s look
1378 at what happens when we then checkout <code>master</code>:</p></div>
1379 <div class="listingblock">
1380 <div class="content">
1381 <pre><code>$ git checkout master
1382
1383                HEAD (refers to branch 'master')
1384       e---f     |
1385      /          v
1386 a---b---c---d  branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd')
1387     ^
1388     |
1389   tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b')</code></pre>
1390 </div></div>
1391 <div class="paragraph"><p>It is important to realize that at this point nothing refers to commit
1392 <code>f</code>. Eventually commit <code>f</code> (and by extension commit <code>e</code>) will be deleted
1393 by the routine Git garbage collection process, unless we create a reference
1394 before that happens. If we have not yet moved away from commit <code>f</code>,
1395 any of these will create a reference to it:</p></div>
1396 <div class="listingblock">
1397 <div class="content">
1398 <pre><code>$ git checkout -b foo  # or "git switch -c foo"  <b>&lt;1&gt;</b>
1399 $ git branch foo                                 <b>&lt;2&gt;</b>
1400 $ git tag foo                                    <b>&lt;3&gt;</b></code></pre>
1401 </div></div>
1402 <div class="colist arabic"><ol>
1403 <li>
1404 <p>
1405 creates a new branch <code>foo</code>, which refers to commit <code>f</code>, and then
1406     updates <code>HEAD</code> to refer to branch <code>foo</code>. In other words, we&#8217;ll no longer
1407     be in detached <code>HEAD</code> state after this command.
1408 </p>
1409 </li>
1410 <li>
1411 <p>
1412 similarly creates a new branch <code>foo</code>, which refers to commit <code>f</code>,
1413     but leaves <code>HEAD</code> detached.
1414 </p>
1415 </li>
1416 <li>
1417 <p>
1418 creates a new tag <code>foo</code>, which refers to commit <code>f</code>,
1419     leaving <code>HEAD</code> detached.
1420 </p>
1421 </li>
1422 </ol></div>
1423 <div class="paragraph"><p>If we have moved away from commit <code>f</code>, then we must first recover its object
1424 name (typically by using git reflog), and then we can create a reference to
1425 it. For example, to see the last two commits to which <code>HEAD</code> referred, we
1426 can use either of these commands:</p></div>
1427 <div class="listingblock">
1428 <div class="content">
1429 <pre><code>$ git reflog -2 HEAD # or
1430 $ git log -g -2 HEAD</code></pre>
1431 </div></div>
1432 </div>
1433 </div>
1434 <div class="sect1">
1435 <h2 id="_argument_disambiguation">ARGUMENT DISAMBIGUATION</h2>
1436 <div class="sectionbody">
1437 <div class="paragraph"><p>When there is only one argument given and it is not <code>--</code> (e.g. <code>git
1438 checkout abc</code>), and when the argument is both a valid <code>&lt;tree-ish&gt;</code>
1439 (e.g. a branch <code>abc</code> exists) and a valid <code>&lt;pathspec&gt;</code> (e.g. a file
1440 or a directory whose name is "abc" exists), Git would usually ask
1441 you to disambiguate.  Because checking out a branch is so common an
1442 operation, however, <code>git checkout abc</code> takes "abc" as a <code>&lt;tree-ish&gt;</code>
1443 in such a situation.  Use <code>git checkout -- &lt;pathspec&gt;</code> if you want
1444 to checkout these paths out of the index.</p></div>
1445 </div>
1446 </div>
1447 <div class="sect1">
1448 <h2 id="_examples">EXAMPLES</h2>
1449 <div class="sectionbody">
1450 <div class="sect2">
1451 <h3 id="_1_paths">1. Paths</h3>
1452 <div class="paragraph"><p>The following sequence checks out the <code>master</code> branch, reverts
1453 the <code>Makefile</code> to two revisions back, deletes <code>hello.c</code> by
1454 mistake, and gets it back from the index.</p></div>
1455 <div class="listingblock">
1456 <div class="content">
1457 <pre><code>$ git checkout master             <b>&lt;1&gt;</b>
1458 $ git checkout master~2 Makefile  <b>&lt;2&gt;</b>
1459 $ rm -f hello.c
1460 $ git checkout hello.c            <b>&lt;3&gt;</b></code></pre>
1461 </div></div>
1462 <div class="colist arabic"><ol>
1463 <li>
1464 <p>
1465 switch branch
1466 </p>
1467 </li>
1468 <li>
1469 <p>
1470 take a file out of another commit
1471 </p>
1472 </li>
1473 <li>
1474 <p>
1475 restore <code>hello.c</code> from the index
1476 </p>
1477 </li>
1478 </ol></div>
1479 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you want to check out <em>all</em> C source files out of the index,
1480 you can say</p></div>
1481 <div class="listingblock">
1482 <div class="content">
1483 <pre><code>$ git checkout -- '*.c'</code></pre>
1484 </div></div>
1485 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note the quotes around <code>*.c</code>.  The file <code>hello.c</code> will also be
1486 checked out, even though it is no longer in the working tree,
1487 because the file globbing is used to match entries in the index
1488 (not in the working tree by the shell).</p></div>
1489 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you have an unfortunate branch that is named <code>hello.c</code>, this
1490 step would be confused as an instruction to switch to that branch.
1491 You should instead write:</p></div>
1492 <div class="listingblock">
1493 <div class="content">
1494 <pre><code>$ git checkout -- hello.c</code></pre>
1495 </div></div>
1496 </div>
1497 <div class="sect2">
1498 <h3 id="_2_merge">2. Merge</h3>
1499 <div class="paragraph"><p>After working in the wrong branch, switching to the correct
1500 branch would be done using:</p></div>
1501 <div class="listingblock">
1502 <div class="content">
1503 <pre><code>$ git checkout mytopic</code></pre>
1504 </div></div>
1505 <div class="paragraph"><p>However, your "wrong" branch and correct <code>mytopic</code> branch may
1506 differ in files that you have modified locally, in which case
1507 the above checkout would fail like this:</p></div>
1508 <div class="listingblock">
1509 <div class="content">
1510 <pre><code>$ git checkout mytopic
1511 error: You have local changes to 'frotz'; not switching branches.</code></pre>
1512 </div></div>
1513 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can give the <code>-m</code> flag to the command, which would try a
1514 three-way merge:</p></div>
1515 <div class="listingblock">
1516 <div class="content">
1517 <pre><code>$ git checkout -m mytopic
1518 Auto-merging frotz</code></pre>
1519 </div></div>
1520 <div class="paragraph"><p>After this three-way merge, the local modifications are <em>not</em>
1521 registered in your index file, so <code>git diff</code> would show you what
1522 changes you made since the tip of the new branch.</p></div>
1523 </div>
1524 <div class="sect2">
1525 <h3 id="_3_merge_conflict">3. Merge conflict</h3>
1526 <div class="paragraph"><p>When a merge conflict happens during switching branches with
1527 the <code>-m</code> option, you would see something like this:</p></div>
1528 <div class="listingblock">
1529 <div class="content">
1530 <pre><code>$ git checkout -m mytopic
1531 Auto-merging frotz
1532 ERROR: Merge conflict in frotz
1533 fatal: merge program failed</code></pre>
1534 </div></div>
1535 <div class="paragraph"><p>At this point, <code>git diff</code> shows the changes cleanly merged as in
1536 the previous example, as well as the changes in the conflicted
1537 files.  Edit and resolve the conflict and mark it resolved with
1538 <code>git add</code> as usual:</p></div>
1539 <div class="listingblock">
1540 <div class="content">
1541 <pre><code>$ edit frotz
1542 $ git add frotz</code></pre>
1543 </div></div>
1544 </div>
1545 </div>
1546 </div>
1547 <div class="sect1">
1548 <h2 id="_configuration">CONFIGURATION</h2>
1549 <div class="sectionbody">
1550 <div class="paragraph"><p>Everything below this line in this section is selectively included
1551 from the <a href="git-config.html">git-config(1)</a> documentation. The content is the same
1552 as what&#8217;s found there:</p></div>
1553 <div class="dlist"><dl>
1554 <dt class="hdlist1">
1555 checkout.defaultRemote
1556 </dt>
1557 <dd>
1558 <p>
1559         When you run <code>git checkout &lt;something&gt;</code>
1560         or <code>git switch &lt;something&gt;</code> and only have one
1561         remote, it may implicitly fall back on checking out and
1562         tracking e.g. <code>origin/&lt;something&gt;</code>. This stops working as soon
1563         as you have more than one remote with a <code>&lt;something&gt;</code>
1564         reference. This setting allows for setting the name of a
1565         preferred remote that should always win when it comes to
1566         disambiguation. The typical use-case is to set this to
1567         <code>origin</code>.
1568 </p>
1569 <div class="paragraph"><p>Currently this is used by <a href="git-switch.html">git-switch(1)</a> and
1570 <a href="git-checkout.html">git-checkout(1)</a> when <code>git checkout &lt;something&gt;</code>
1571 or <code>git switch &lt;something&gt;</code>
1572 will checkout the <code>&lt;something&gt;</code> branch on another remote,
1573 and by <a href="git-worktree.html">git-worktree(1)</a> when <code>git worktree add</code> refers to a
1574 remote branch. This setting might be used for other checkout-like
1575 commands or functionality in the future.</p></div>
1576 </dd>
1577 <dt class="hdlist1">
1578 checkout.guess
1579 </dt>
1580 <dd>
1581 <p>
1582         Provides the default value for the <code>--guess</code> or <code>--no-guess</code>
1583         option in <code>git checkout</code> and <code>git switch</code>. See
1584         <a href="git-switch.html">git-switch(1)</a> and <a href="git-checkout.html">git-checkout(1)</a>.
1585 </p>
1586 </dd>
1587 <dt class="hdlist1">
1588 checkout.workers
1589 </dt>
1590 <dd>
1591 <p>
1592         The number of parallel workers to use when updating the working tree.
1593         The default is one, i.e. sequential execution. If set to a value less
1594         than one, Git will use as many workers as the number of logical cores
1595         available. This setting and <code>checkout.thresholdForParallelism</code> affect
1596         all commands that perform checkout. E.g. checkout, clone, reset,
1597         sparse-checkout, etc.
1598 </p>
1599 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note: Parallel checkout usually delivers better performance for repositories
1600 located on SSDs or over NFS. For repositories on spinning disks and/or machines
1601 with a small number of cores, the default sequential checkout often performs
1602 better. The size and compression level of a repository might also influence how
1603 well the parallel version performs.</p></div>
1604 </dd>
1605 <dt class="hdlist1">
1606 checkout.thresholdForParallelism
1607 </dt>
1608 <dd>
1609 <p>
1610         When running parallel checkout with a small number of files, the cost
1611         of subprocess spawning and inter-process communication might outweigh
1612         the parallelization gains. This setting allows you to define the minimum
1613         number of files for which parallel checkout should be attempted. The
1614         default is 100.
1615 </p>
1616 </dd>
1617 </dl></div>
1618 </div>
1619 </div>
1620 <div class="sect1">
1621 <h2 id="_see_also">SEE ALSO</h2>
1622 <div class="sectionbody">
1623 <div class="paragraph"><p><a href="git-switch.html">git-switch(1)</a>,
1624 <a href="git-restore.html">git-restore(1)</a></p></div>
1625 </div>
1626 </div>
1627 <div class="sect1">
1628 <h2 id="_git">GIT</h2>
1629 <div class="sectionbody">
1630 <div class="paragraph"><p>Part of the <a href="git.html">git(1)</a> suite</p></div>
1631 </div>
1632 </div>
1633 </div>
1634 <div id="footnotes"><hr /></div>
1635 <div id="footer">
1636 <div id="footer-text">
1637 Last updated
1638  2024-01-02 14:28:43 PST
1639 </div>
1640 </div>
1641 </body>
1642 </html>