Managing Branches

• git branch BRANCH – create a new branch named branch (but don’t switch to it)
  • HEAD will still point to the current branch
• git branch – return current branches
  • --merged BRANCH – return branches that have merged into current branch or branch
  • --no-merged BRANCH – return branches that have not merged into current branch or branch
  • --list – list all branches in the repo
  • --all
  • --delete BRANCH – delete BRANCH
  • --move OLD-BRANCH-NAME NEW-BRANCH-NAME – rename branch from OLD-BRANCH-NAME to NEW-BRANCH-NAME
  • --set-upstream-to REMOTE/BRANCH-NAME [LOCAL-BRANCH] – track remote branch at REMOTE/BRANCH-NAME to LOCAL-BRANCH
  • -v – return current branches and last commit on each branch
  • -vv – return current branches, last commit, tracking, and position of current branch

Switching Branches

Switching branches changes files in your working directory to match your last commit on this branch.

• git switch [--create] BRANCH – switch to BRANCH; optionally create it first
• git switch – switch to previous branch

Remote Branches

• git push --set-upstream REMOTE BRANCH – push BRANCH to REMOTE
• git push REMOTE --delete BRANCH – delete BRANCH from REMOTE
• git push REMOTE LOCAL-BRANCH:<remote branch> – push LOCAL-BRANCH to REMOTE

Remote-tracking Branches

• References to the state of remote branches.
• Remote-tracking branch names are in the form REMOTE/BRANCH-NAME.
  • Example: origin/master is a remote-tracking branch of origin:master.

Workflow Strategies for Branches (with recommended names)

• master – code that is entirely stable
• develop – the working branch used to test stability
• topic – branches used to work on individual topics (issues, hotfixes, features)