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-rw-r--r--Documentation/git-branch.txt30
1 files changed, 17 insertions, 13 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/git-branch.txt b/Documentation/git-branch.txt
index 45a225e0aa..311b33674e 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-branch.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-branch.txt
@@ -22,13 +22,15 @@ SYNOPSIS
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. This list mode is also
-activated by the `--list` option (see below).
-<pattern> restricts the output to matching branches, the pattern is a shell
-wildcard (i.e., matched using fnmatch(3)).
-Multiple patterns may be given; if any of them matches, the branch is shown.
+If `--list` is given, or if there are no non-option arguments, existing
+branches are listed; the current branch will be highlighted with an
+asterisk. Option `-r` causes the remote-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 to
+matching branches. If multiple patterns are given, a branch is shown if
+it matches any of the patterns. Note that when providing a
+`<pattern>`, you must use `--list`; otherwise the command is interpreted
+as branch creation.
With `--contains`, shows only the branches that contain the named commit
(in other words, the branches whose tip commits are descendants of the
@@ -45,8 +47,9 @@ 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-tracking branch, git sets up the
-branch so that 'git pull' will appropriately merge from
+When a local branch is started off a remote-tracking branch, Git sets up the
+branch (specifically the `branch.<name>.remote` and `branch.<name>.merge`
+configuration entries) so that 'git pull' will appropriately merge from
the remote-tracking 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, and
@@ -154,7 +157,8 @@ This option is only applicable in non-verbose mode.
-t::
--track::
- When creating a new branch, set up configuration to mark the
+ When creating a new branch, set up `branch.<name>.remote` and
+ `branch.<name>.merge` configuration entries 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,
@@ -193,15 +197,15 @@ start-point is either a local or remote-tracking branch.
--contains [<commit>]::
Only list branches which contain the specified commit (HEAD
- if not specified).
+ if not specified). Implies `--list`.
--merged [<commit>]::
Only list branches whose tips are reachable from the
- specified commit (HEAD if not specified).
+ specified commit (HEAD if not specified). Implies `--list`.
--no-merged [<commit>]::
Only list branches whose tips are not reachable from the
- specified commit (HEAD if not specified).
+ specified commit (HEAD if not specified). Implies `--list`.
<branchname>::
The name of the branch to create or delete.