Git

NAME

git-branch - List, create, or delete branches

SYNOPSIS

git branch [--color[=<when>] | --no-color] [--show-current][-v [--abbrev=<n> | --no-abbrev]][--column[=<options>] | --no-column] [--sort=<key>][--merged [<commit>]] [--no-merged [<commit>]][--contains [<commit>]] [--no-contains [<commit>]][--points-at <object>] [--format=<format>][(-r | --remotes) | (-a | --all)][--list] [<pattern>…]git branch [--track[=(direct|inherit)] | --no-track] [-f][--recurse-submodules] <branchname> [<start-point>]git branch (--set-upstream-to=<upstream> | -u <upstream>) [<branchname>]git branch --unset-upstream [<branchname>]git branch (-m | -M) [<oldbranch>] <newbranch>git branch (-c | -C) [<oldbranch>] <newbranch>git branch (-d | -D) [-r] <branchname>…git branch --edit-description [<branchname>]

DESCRIPTION

If --list is given, or if there are no non-option arguments, existingbranches are listed; the current branch will be highlighted in green andmarked with an asterisk. Any branches checked out in linked worktrees willbe highlighted in cyan and marked with a plus sign. Option -r causes theremote-tracking branches to be listed,and option -a shows both local and remote branches.

If a <pattern>is given, it is used as a shell wildcard to restrict the output tomatching branches. If multiple patterns are given, a branch is shown ifit matches any of the patterns.

Note that when providing a<pattern>, you must use --list; otherwise the command may be interpretedas branch creation.

With --contains, shows only the branches that contain the named commit(in other words, the branches whose tip commits are descendants of thenamed commit), --no-contains inverts it. With --merged, only branchesmerged into the named commit (i.e. the branches whose tip commits arereachable from the named commit) will be listed. With --no-merged onlybranches 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 currentbranch).

The command’s second form creates a new branch head named <branchname>which points to the current HEAD, or <start-point> if given. As aspecial case, for <start-point>, you may use "A...B" as a shortcut forthe merge base of A and B if there is exactly one merge base. Youcan leave out at most one of A and B, in which case it defaults toHEAD.

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

When a local branch is started off a remote-tracking branch, Git sets up thebranch (specifically the branch.<name>.remote and branch.<name>.mergeconfiguration entries) so that git pull will appropriately merge fromthe remote-tracking branch. This behavior may be changed via the globalbranch.autoSetupMerge configuration flag. That setting can beoverridden by using the --track and --no-track options, andchanged later using git branch --set-upstream-to.

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 branchrenaming. If <newbranch> exists, -M must be used to force the renameto happen.

The -c and -C options have the exact same semantics as -m and-M, except instead of the branch being renamed, it will be copied to anew name, along with its config and reflog.

With a -d or -D option, <branchname> will be deleted. You mayspecify more than one branch for deletion. If the branch currentlyhas a reflog then the reflog will also be deleted.

Use -r together with -d to delete remote-tracking branches. Note, that itonly makes sense to delete remote-tracking branches if they no longer existin the remote repository or if git fetch was configured not to fetchthem again. See also the prune subcommand of git-remote[1] for away to clean up all obsolete remote-tracking branches.

OPTIONS

-d

--delete

Delete a branch. The branch must be fully merged in itsupstream branch, or in HEAD if no upstream was set with--track or --set-upstream-to.

-D

Shortcut for --delete --force.

--create-reflog

Create the branch’s reflog. This activates recording ofall changes made to the branch ref, enabling use of datebased sha1 expressions such as "<branchname>@{yesterday}".Note that in non-bare repositories, reflogs are usuallyenabled by default by the core.logAllRefUpdates config option.The negated form --no-create-reflog only overrides an earlier--create-reflog, but currently does not negate the setting ofcore.logAllRefUpdates.

-f

--force

Reset <branchname> to <start-point>, even if <branchname> existsalready. Without -f, git branch refuses to change an existing branch.In combination with -d (or --delete), allow deleting thebranch irrespective of its merged status, or whether it evenpoints to a valid commit. In combination with-m (or --move), allow renaming the branch even if the newbranch name already exists, the same applies for -c (or --copy).

Note that git branch -f <branchname> [<start-point>], even with -f,refuses to change an existing branch <branchname> that is checked outin another worktree linked to the same repository.

-m

--move

Move/rename a branch, together with its config and reflog.

-M

Shortcut for --move --force.

-c

--copy

Copy a branch, together with its config and reflog.

-C

Shortcut for --copy --force.

--color[=<when>]

Color branches to highlight current, local, andremote-tracking branches.The value must be always (the default), never, or auto.

--no-color

Turn off branch colors, even when the configuration file gives thedefault to color output.Same as --color=never.

-i

--ignore-case

Sorting and filtering branches are case insensitive.

--omit-empty

Do not print a newline after formatted refs where the format expandsto the empty string.

--column[=<options>]

--no-column

Display branch listing in columns. See configuration variablecolumn.branch for option syntax. --column and --no-columnwithout options are equivalent to always and never respectively.

This option is only applicable in non-verbose mode.

-r

--remotes

List or delete (if used with -d) the remote-tracking branches.Combine with --list to match the optional pattern(s).

-a

--all

List both remote-tracking branches and local branches.Combine with --list to match optional pattern(s).

-l

--list

List branches. With optional <pattern>..., e.g. gitbranch --list 'maint-*', list only the branches that matchthe pattern(s).

--show-current

Print the name of the current branch. In detached HEAD state,nothing is printed.

-v

-vv

--verbose

When in list mode,show sha1 and commit subject line for each head, along withrelationship to upstream branch (if any). If given twice, printthe path of the linked worktree (if any) and the name of the upstreambranch, as well (see also git remote show <remote>). Note that thecurrent worktree’s HEAD will not have its path printed (it will alwaysbe your current directory).

-q

--quiet

Be more quiet when creating or deleting a branch, suppressingnon-error messages.

--abbrev=<n>

In the verbose listing that show the commit object name,show the shortest prefix that is at least <n> hexdigitslong that uniquely refers the object.The default value is 7 and can be overridden by the core.abbrevconfig option.

--no-abbrev

Display the full sha1s in the output listing rather than abbreviating them.

-t

--track[=(direct|inherit)]

When creating a new branch, set up branch.<name>.remote andbranch.<name>.merge configuration entries to set "upstream" trackingconfiguration for the new branch. Thisconfiguration will tell git to show the relationship between thetwo branches in git status and git branch -v. Furthermore,it directs git pull without arguments to pull from theupstream when the new branch is checked out.

The exact upstream branch is chosen depending on the optional argument:-t, --track, or --track=direct means to use the start-point branchitself as the upstream; --track=inherit means to copy the upstreamconfiguration of the start-point branch.

The branch.autoSetupMerge configuration variable specifies how git switch,git checkout and git branch should behave when neither --track nor--no-track are specified:

The default option, true, behaves as though --track=directwere given whenever the start-point is a remote-tracking branch.false behaves as if --no-track were given. always behaves as though--track=direct were given. inherit behaves as though --track=inheritwere given. simple behaves as though --track=direct were given only whenthe start-point is a remote-tracking branch and the new branch has the samename as the remote branch.

See git-pull[1] and git-config[1] for additional discussion onhow the branch.<name>.remote and branch.<name>.merge options are used.

--no-track

Do not set up "upstream" configuration, even if thebranch.autoSetupMerge configuration variable is set.

--recurse-submodules

THIS OPTION IS EXPERIMENTAL! Causes the current command torecurse into submodules if submodule.propagateBranches isenabled. See submodule.propagateBranches ingit-config[1]. Currently, only branch creation issupported.

When used in branch creation, a new branch <branchname> will be createdin the superproject and all of the submodules in the superproject’s<start-point>. In submodules, the branch will point to the submodulecommit in the superproject’s <start-point> but the branch’s trackinginformation will be set up based on the submodule’s branches and remotese.g. git branch --recurse-submodules topic origin/main will create thesubmodule branch "topic" that points to the submodule commit in thesuperproject’s "origin/main", but tracks the submodule’s "origin/main".

--set-upstream

As this option had confusing syntax, it is no longer supported.Please use --track or --set-upstream-to instead.

-u <upstream>

--set-upstream-to=<upstream>

Set up <branchname>'s tracking information so <upstream> isconsidered <branchname>'s upstream branch. If no <branchname>is specified, then it defaults to the current branch.

--unset-upstream

Remove the upstream information for <branchname>. If no branchis specified it defaults to the current branch.

--edit-description

Open an editor and edit the text to explain what the branch isfor, to be used by various other commands (e.g. format-patch,request-pull, and merge (if enabled)). Multi-line explanationsmay be used.

--contains [<commit>]

Only list branches which contain the specified commit (HEADif not specified). Implies --list.

--no-contains [<commit>]

Only list branches which don’t contain the specified commit(HEAD if not specified). Implies --list.

--merged [<commit>]

Only list branches whose tips are reachable from thespecified commit (HEAD if not specified). Implies --list.

--no-merged [<commit>]

Only list branches whose tips are not reachable from thespecified commit (HEAD if not specified). Implies --list.

<branchname>

The name of the branch to create or delete.The new branch name must pass all checks defined bygit-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checksmay restrict the characters allowed in a branch name.

<start-point>

The new branch head will point to this commit. It may begiven as a branch name, a commit-id, or a tag. If thisoption is omitted, the current HEAD will be used instead.

<oldbranch>

The name of an existing branch. If this option is omitted,the name of the current branch will be used instead.

<newbranch>

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

--sort=<key>

Sort based on the key given. Prefix - to sort in descendingorder of the value. You may use the --sort=<key> optionmultiple times, in which case the last key becomes the primarykey. The keys supported are the same as those in gitfor-each-ref. Sort order defaults to the value configured for thebranch.sort variable if it exists, or to sorting based on thefull refname (including refs/... prefix). This listsdetached HEAD (if present) first, then local branches andfinally remote-tracking branches. See git-config[1].

--points-at <object>

Only list branches of the given object.

--format <format>

A string that interpolates %(fieldname) from a branch ref being shownand the object it points at. The format is the same asthat of git-for-each-ref[1].

CONFIGURATION

pager.branch is only respected when listing branches, i.e., when--list is used or implied. The default is to use a pager.See git-config[1].

Everything above this line in this section isn’t included from thegit-config[1] documentation. The content that follows is thesame as what’s found there:

branch.autoSetupMerge

Tells git branch, git switch and git checkout to set up new branchesso that git-pull[1] will appropriately merge from thestarting point branch. Note that even if this option is not set,this behavior can be chosen per-branch using the --trackand --no-track options. The valid settings are: false — noautomatic setup is done; true — automatic setup is done when thestarting point is a remote-tracking branch; always — automatic setup is done when the starting point is either alocal branch or remote-tracking branch; inherit — if the starting pointhas a tracking configuration, it is copied to the newbranch; simple — automatic setup is done only when the starting pointis a remote-tracking branch and the new branch has the same name as theremote branch. This option defaults to true.

branch.autoSetupRebase

When a new branch is created with git branch, git switch or git checkoutthat tracks another branch, this variable tells Git to setup pull to rebase instead of merge (see "branch.<name>.rebase").When never, rebase is never automatically set to true.When local, rebase is set to true for tracked branches ofother local branches.When remote, rebase is set to true for tracked branches ofremote-tracking branches.When always, rebase will be set to true for all trackingbranches.See "branch.autoSetupMerge" for details on how to set up abranch to track another branch.This option defaults to never.

branch.sort

This variable controls the sort ordering of branches when displayed bygit-branch[1]. Without the "--sort=<value>" option provided, thevalue of this variable will be used as the default.See git-for-each-ref[1] field names for valid values.

branch.<name>.remote

When on branch <name>, it tells git fetch and git pushwhich remote to fetch from or push to. The remote to push tomay be overridden with remote.pushDefault (for all branches).The remote to push to, for the current branch, may be furtheroverridden by branch.<name>.pushRemote. If no remote isconfigured, or if you are not on any branch and there is more thanone remote defined in the repository, it defaults to origin forfetching and remote.pushDefault for pushing.Additionally, . (a period) is the current local repository(a dot-repository), see branch.<name>.merge's final note below.

branch.<name>.pushRemote

When on branch <name>, it overrides branch.<name>.remote forpushing. It also overrides remote.pushDefault for pushingfrom branch <name>. When you pull from one place (e.g. yourupstream) and push to another place (e.g. your own publishingrepository), you would want to set remote.pushDefault tospecify the remote to push to for all branches, and use thisoption to override it for a specific branch.

branch.<name>.merge

Defines, together with branch.<name>.remote, the upstream branchfor the given branch. It tells git fetch/git pull/git rebase whichbranch to merge and can also affect git push (see push.default).When in branch <name>, it tells git fetch the defaultrefspec to be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The value ishandled like the remote part of a refspec, and must match aref which is fetched from the remote given by"branch.<name>.remote".The merge information is used by git pull (which first callsgit fetch) to lookup the default branch for merging. Withoutthis option, git pull defaults to merge the first refspec fetched.Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge.If you wish to setup git pull so that it merges into <name> fromanother branch in the local repository, you can pointbranch.<name>.merge to the desired branch, and use the relative pathsetting . (a period) for branch.<name>.remote.

branch.<name>.mergeOptions

Sets default options for merging into branch <name>. The syntax andsupported options are the same as those of git-merge[1], butoption values containing whitespace characters are currently notsupported.

branch.<name>.rebase

When true, rebase the branch <name> on top of the fetched branch,instead of merging the default branch from the default remote when"git pull" is run. See "pull.rebase" for doing this in a nonbranch-specific manner.

When merges (or just m), pass the --rebase-merges option to git rebaseso that the local merge commits are included in the rebase (seegit-rebase[1] for details).

When the value is interactive (or just i), the rebase is run in interactivemode.

NOTE: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do not useit unless you understand the implications (see git-rebase[1]for details).

branch.<name>.description

Branch description, can be edited withgit branch --edit-description. Branch description isautomatically added to the format-patch cover letter orrequest-pull summary.

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 switch my2.6.14

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)

Delete the remote-tracking branches "todo", "html" and "man". The nextfetch or pull will create them again unless you configure them not to.See git-fetch[1].
Delete the "test" branch even if the "master" branch (or whichever branchis currently checked out) does not have all commits from the test branch.

Listing branches from a specific remote

$ git branch -r -l '<remote>/<pattern>' (1)$ git for-each-ref 'refs/remotes/<remote>/<pattern>' (2)

Using -a would conflate <remote> with any local branches you happen tohave been prefixed with the same <remote> pattern.
for-each-ref can take a wide range of options. See git-for-each-ref[1]

Patterns will normally need quoting.

NOTES

If you are creating a branch that you want to switch to immediately,it is easier to use the "git switch" command with its -c option todo the same thing with a single command.

The options --contains, --no-contains, --merged and --no-mergedserve four related but different purposes:

--contains <commit> is used to find all branches which will needspecial attention if <commit> were to be rebased or amended, since thosebranches contain the specified <commit>.
--no-contains <commit> is the inverse of that, i.e. branches that don’tcontain 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 merginginto HEAD, since those branches are not fully contained by HEAD.

When combining multiple --contains and --no-contains filters, onlyreferences that contain at least one of the --contains commits andcontain none of the --no-contains commits are shown.

When combining multiple --merged and --no-merged filters, onlyreferences that are reachable from at least one of the --mergedcommits and from none of the --no-merged commits are shown.

Part of the git[1] suite

Git - git-branch Documentation (2024)