GIT-BRANCH

Section: Git Manual (1)
Updated: 09/22/2011

NAME

git-branch - List, create, or delete branches

SYNOPSIS

git branch [--color[=<when>] | --no-color] [-r | -a]
        [-v [--abbrev=<length> | --no-abbrev]]
        [(--merged | --no-merged | --contains) [<commit>]]
git branch [--set-upstream | --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).

The command's second form creates a new branch head named <branchname> which points to the current HEAD, or <start-point> if given.

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 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 its upstream branch, or in HEAD if no upstream was set with --track or --set-upstream.

-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}". Note that in non-bare repositories, reflogs are usually enabled by default by the core.logallrefupdates config option.

-f, --force

: 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[=<when>]

: Color branches to highlight current, local, and remote branches. The value must be always (the default), never, or auto.

--no-color

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

-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, along with relationship to upstream branch (if any). If given twice, print the name of the upstream branch, as well.

--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.

-t, --track

: When creating a new branch, set up configuration to mark the start-point branch as "upstream" from the new branch. This configuration will tell git to show the relationship between the two branches in git status and git branch -v. Furthermore, it directs git pull without arguments to pull from the upstream when the new branch is checked out.
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

: Do not set up "upstream" configuration, even if the branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable is true.

--set-upstream

: If specified branch does not exist yet or if --force has been given, acts exactly like --track. Otherwise sets up configuration like --track would when creating the branch, except that where branch points to is not changed.

--contains <commit>

: Only list branches which contain the specified commit.

--merged [<commit>]

: Only list branches whose tips are reachable from the specified commit (HEAD if not specified).

--no-merged [<commit>]

: Only list branches whose tips are not reachable from the specified commit (HEAD if not specified).

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

<start-point>

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

: The name of an existing branch to rename.

: 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 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>.