Git branches

In this page

  1. Create and checkout a branch
  2. List branches
  3. Copy & Merge
  4. Delete branches
  5. Talking to the server
  6. Swap master branch

1. Create and checkout a branch

Create & Checkout

The commands below are useful to create, checkout and track branches: 

$ git branch <newbranch>    # Locally create newbranch
$ git checkout <branch>     # Locally switch to branch

$ git checkout -b <newbranch>   # Equivalent to the two above commands

## Checkout remote branch & create local copy 
$ git checkout -b <branch> origin/<branch>   

## Create local branch from remote and set it to be tracked
$ git checkout --track -b origin <branch>

2. List branches

List locally know branches

To see what branches are available and known locally

$ git branch [-r][-a]   # See local, [r]emote, or [a]ll branches (known locally)

List remote branches

To see what branches are available and not known locally

$ git ls-remote <remote-name>    # Lists really all remote branches and tags

$ git ls-remote <remote-name> \
  | grep refs/head/              # Lists really all remote branches (no tags)

$ git remote show <remote-name>  # Another option

3. Copy & Merge

Copy file

To copy a version of file in the master to another branch (for instance to update a .gitignore file), do the following: 

$ git checkout <branch>       # Checkout a local branch
$ git checkout master <file>  # Copy file from master to branch just checked out

Merge to master

Work on a branch is done and we want to merge into the master branch. That is how: 

$ git checkout master             # Switch to master branch
$ git merge <branch>              # Merge branch into master

4. Delete branches

Delete

To delete a branch, just do the following: 

$ git branch -d <branch>          # Delete a local branch
$ git push origin :<branch>       # Delete a remote branch

5. Talking to the server

Push

To push one branch: 

$ git push -u origin <branch>     # Push changes in branch to remote repository

Push & Pull one branch

To push and pull one branch to the server, it is easier to check it out first. Like this: 

$ git checkout <branch>  # Switch to branch
$ git push;              # Push branch to remote
$ git pull;              # Pull branch from remote

Push All

To push all branches to the remote server: 

$ git push --all         # Push changes in all branches to remote

6. Swap master branch

Swapping master branch

Swapping the master branch is an obscure task. Supposing that I have a better branch that I want to move into master, which I want to back-up in legacy, this is the best I came up with, so far: 

$ git branch -m master legacy   # Local: move master to (new) legacy
$ git branch -m better master   # Local: move better to (new) master
$ git push origin legacy        # Remote: create legacy
$ git checkout master           # Local: switch to (new) master
$ git push -f origin master     # Remote: (force) delete old / create new master
$ git push origin :better       # Remote: delete (old copy of) better

The above makes a local mess but the remote seems to be good. Instead of trying --hard resets, and stuff, I prefer to erase the local repository and re-clone it:

  1. Erase the local repository;
  2. Re-clone it;
  3. List remote branches
  4. Copy desired remote branches to local (see "Playing with branches" two boxes above).