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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/git-checkout.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/git-checkout.txt | 157 |
1 files changed, 132 insertions, 25 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/git-checkout.txt b/Documentation/git-checkout.txt index 880763d391..396f4cc15b 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-checkout.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-checkout.txt @@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ SYNOPSIS -------- [verse] 'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [<branch>] +'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [--detach] [<commit>] 'git checkout' [-q] [-f] [-m] [[-b|-B|--orphan] <new_branch>] [<start_point>] 'git checkout' [-f|--ours|--theirs|-m|--conflict=<style>] [<tree-ish>] [--] <paths>... 'git checkout' --patch [<tree-ish>] [--] [<paths>...] @@ -22,9 +23,10 @@ branch. 'git checkout' [<branch>]:: 'git checkout' -b|-B <new_branch> [<start point>]:: +'git checkout' [--detach] [<commit>]:: This form switches branches by updating the index, working - tree, and HEAD to reflect the specified branch. + tree, and HEAD to reflect the specified branch or commit. + If `-b` is given, a new branch is created as if linkgit:git-branch[1] were called and then checked out; in this case you can @@ -115,6 +117,13 @@ explicitly give a name with '-b' in such a case. Create the new branch's reflog; see linkgit:git-branch[1] for details. +--detach:: + Rather than checking out a branch to work on it, check out a + commit for inspection and discardable experiments. + This is the default behavior of "git checkout <commit>" when + <commit> is not a branch name. See the "DETACHED HEAD" section + below for details. + --orphan:: Create a new 'orphan' branch, named <new_branch>, started from <start_point> and switch to it. The first commit made on this @@ -204,42 +213,140 @@ leave out at most one of `A` and `B`, in which case it defaults to `HEAD`. -Detached HEAD +DETACHED HEAD ------------- +HEAD normally refers to a named branch (e.g. 'master'). Meanwhile, each +branch refers to a specific commit. Let's look at a repo with three +commits, one of them tagged, and with branch 'master' checked out: + +------------ + HEAD (refers to branch 'master') + | + v +a---b---c branch 'master' (refers to commit 'c') + ^ + | + tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b') +------------ -It is sometimes useful to be able to 'checkout' a commit that is -not at the tip of one of your branches. The most obvious -example is to check out the commit at a tagged official release -point, like this: +When a commit is created in this state, the branch is updated to refer to +the new commit. Specifically, 'git commit' creates a new commit 'd', whose +parent is commit 'c', and then updates branch 'master' to refer to new +commit 'd'. HEAD still refers to branch 'master' and so indirectly now refers +to commit 'd': ------------ -$ git checkout v2.6.18 +$ edit; git add; git commit + + HEAD (refers to branch 'master') + | + v +a---b---c---d branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd') + ^ + | + tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b') ------------ -Earlier versions of git did not allow this and asked you to -create a temporary branch using the `-b` option, but starting from -version 1.5.0, the above command 'detaches' your HEAD from the -current branch and directly points at the commit named by the tag -(`v2.6.18` in the example above). +It is sometimes useful to be able to checkout a commit that is not at +the tip of any named branch, or even to create a new commit that is not +referenced by a named branch. Let's look at what happens when we +checkout commit 'b' (here we show two ways this may be done): -You can use all git commands while in this state. You can use -`git reset --hard $othercommit` to further move around, for -example. You can make changes and create a new commit on top of -a detached HEAD. You can even create a merge by using `git -merge $othercommit`. +------------ +$ git checkout v2.0 # or +$ git checkout master^^ + + HEAD (refers to commit 'b') + | + v +a---b---c---d branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd') + ^ + | + tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b') +------------ -The state you are in while your HEAD is detached is not recorded -by any branch (which is natural --- you are not on any branch). -What this means is that you can discard your temporary commits -and merges by switching back to an existing branch (e.g. `git -checkout master`), and a later `git prune` or `git gc` would -garbage-collect them. If you did this by mistake, you can ask -the reflog for HEAD where you were, e.g. +Notice that regardless of which checkout command we use, HEAD now refers +directly to commit 'b'. This is known as being in detached HEAD state. +It means simply that HEAD refers to a specific commit, as opposed to +referring to a named branch. Let's see what happens when we create a commit: ------------ -$ git log -g -2 HEAD +$ edit; git add; git commit + + HEAD (refers to commit 'e') + | + v + e + / +a---b---c---d branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd') + ^ + | + tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b') +------------ + +There is now a new commit 'e', but it is referenced only by HEAD. We can +of course add yet another commit in this state: + +------------ +$ edit; git add; git commit + + HEAD (refers to commit 'f') + | + v + e---f + / +a---b---c---d branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd') + ^ + | + tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b') +------------ + +In fact, we can perform all the normal git operations. But, let's look +at what happens when we then checkout master: + +------------ +$ git checkout master + + HEAD (refers to branch 'master') + e---f | + / v +a---b---c---d branch 'master' (refers to commit 'd') + ^ + | + tag 'v2.0' (refers to commit 'b') ------------ +It is important to realize that at this point nothing refers to commit +'f'. Eventually commit 'f' (and by extension commit 'e') will be deleted +by the routine git garbage collection process, unless we create a reference +before that happens. If we have not yet moved away from commit 'f', +any of these will create a reference to it: + +------------ +$ git checkout -b foo <1> +$ git branch foo <2> +$ git tag foo <3> +------------ + +<1> creates a new branch 'foo', which refers to commit 'f', and then +updates HEAD to refer to branch 'foo'. In other words, we'll no longer +be in detached HEAD state after this command. + +<2> similarly creates a new branch 'foo', which refers to commit 'f', +but leaves HEAD detached. + +<3> creates a new tag 'foo', which refers to commit 'f', +leaving HEAD detached. + +If we have moved away from commit 'f', then we must first recover its object +name (typically by using git reflog), and then we can create a reference to +it. For example, to see the last two commits to which HEAD referred, we +can use either of these commands: + +------------ +$ git reflog -2 HEAD # or +$ git log -g -2 HEAD +------------ EXAMPLES -------- |