Branches

Formatting

  • Branch naming should be clear and use slashes e.g. routing/campground

  • So you can easily search for all branches of that type: git branch --list "routing/*"

DescriptionCommands

List all branches

  • q key to exit list

  • -avv more info in list (also shows hidden branches)

git branch

git branch -avv

Create a new branch

git branch <BRANCH_NAME>

Create a new branch and checkout at the same time

git checkout -b <BRANCH_NAME>

Change to a branch

  • switch also works for changing branches

git checkout <BRANCH_NAME>

git switch <BRANCH_NAME>

Checkout a specific commit rather than a whole branch

  • This moves HEAD to the specific commit

git checkout <COMMIT_HASH>

Relative references

  • Move up ancestors from a specific reference point

  • ^ moves to the first parent of the ref e.g.main^ and ^^ to the second parent, etc.

  • ^2 moves to the second parent if the current commit has two or more parents to move back towards

  • Use HEAD^ to travel backwards as the relative reference moves with you

  • ~ moves a specified number of commits backwards e.g. HEAD~4

  • I think ~ without a number is the same as ^

  • The modifiers can also be chained together in a single command!

git checkout <REF>^

git checkout HEAD^

git checkout HEAD^2

git checkout HEAD~4

git checkout HEAD~2^2~2

Moving a branch (Branch forcing) to a new location

  • -f forces the command to happen

git branch -f <BRANCH_TO_MOVE> <LOCATION_TO_MOVE>

Merge two branches

  • The branch name used should be the one you are not currently in

git merge <BRANCH_NAME>

Delete a branch

git branch -d <BRANCH_NAME>

Delete branch on Remote

git push <REMOTE_NAME> --delete <BRANCH_NAME>

List of changes that will be merged into the current branch

git log ..<BRANCH_NAME>

Formatting branch names

  • Branch naming should be clear and use slashes e.g. routing/campground

  • So you can easily search for all branches of that type

git branch --list "routing/*"

Remote tracking

  • You can make any arbitrary branch track o/main, and if you do so, that branch will have the same implied push destination and merge target as main

  • This means you can run git push on a branch named totallyNotMain and have your work pushed to the main branch on the remote!

  • There are two ways to set this property. The first is to checkout a new branch by using a remote branch as the specified ref

  • Another way to set remote tracking on a branch is to simply use the git branch -u option

    • <BRANCH_NAME> is not needed if you are already on the branch you want to use as the remote tracking reference

git checkout -b <NEW_BRANCH_NAME> <REMOTE_REF>

git checkout -b totallyNotMain origin/main git branch -u <REMOTE_REF> <BRANCH_NAME>

git branch -u origin/main foo

Deleting an ambiguous local branch

  • If you've made a mistake and somehow created a local branch with the same name as a remote branch, you can either rename the local branch or delete it in the local file system

rm -r .git/refs/heads/<BRANCH_TO_DELETE>

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