NAME

git-branch - List, create, or delete branches

SYNOPSIS

git branch [--color[=<when>] | --no-color] [--show-current]
    [-v [--abbrev=<length> | --no-abbrev]]
    [--column[=<options>] | --no-column] [--sort=<key>]
    [(--merged | --no-merged) [<commit>]]
    [--contains [<commit]] [--no-contains [<commit>]]
    [--points-at <object>] [--format=<format>]
    [(-r | --remotes) | (-a | --all)]
    [--list] [<pattern>…​]
git branch [--track | --no-track] [-f] <branchname> [<start-point>]
git branch (--set-upstream-to=<upstream> | -u <upstream>) [<branchname>]
git branch --unset-upstream [<branchname>]
git branch (-m | -M) [<oldbranch>] <newbranch>
git branch (-c | -C) [<oldbranch>] <newbranch>
git branch (-d | -D) [-r] <branchname>…​
git branch --edit-description [<branchname>]

DESCRIPTION

If —list is given, or if there are no non-option arguments, existingbranches are listed; the current branch will be highlighted in green andmarked with an asterisk. Any branches checked out in linked worktrees willbe highlighted in cyan and marked with a plus sign. Option -r causes theremote-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 tomatching branches. If multiple patterns are given, a branch is shown ifit matches any of the patterns.

Note that when providing a<pattern>, you must use —list; otherwise the command may be interpretedas branch creation.

With —contains, shows only the branches that contain the named commit(in other words, the branches whose tip commits are descendants of thenamed commit), —no-contains inverts it. With —merged, only branchesmerged into the named commit (i.e. the branches whose tip commits arereachable from the named commit) will be listed. With —no-merged onlybranches not merged into the named commit will be listed. If the <commit>argument is missing it defaults to HEAD (i.e. the tip of the currentbranch).

The command’s second form creates a new branch head named <branchname>which points to the current HEAD, or <start-point> if given. As aspecial case, for <start-point>, you may use "A…B" as a shortcut forthe merge base of A and B if there is exactly one merge base. Youcan leave out at most one of A and B, in which case it defaults toHEAD.

Note that this will create the new branch, but it will not switch theworking tree to it; use "git switch <newbranch>" to switch to thenew branch.

When a local branch is started off a remote-tracking branch, Git sets up thebranch (specifically the branch.<name>.remote and branch.<name>.mergeconfiguration entries) so that git pull will appropriately merge fromthe remote-tracking branch. This behavior may be changed via the globalbranch.autoSetupMerge configuration flag. That setting can beoverridden by using the —track and —no-track options, andchanged later using git branch —set-upstream-to.

With a -m or -M option, <oldbranch> will be renamed to <newbranch>.If <oldbranch> had a corresponding reflog, it is renamed to match<newbranch>, and a reflog entry is created to remember the branchrenaming. If <newbranch> exists, -M must be used to force the renameto happen.

The -c and -C options have the exact same semantics as -m and-M, except instead of the branch being renamed it along with itsconfig and reflog will be copied to a new name.

With a -d or -D option, <branchname> will be deleted. You mayspecify more than one branch for deletion. If the branch currentlyhas a reflog then the reflog will also be deleted.

Use -r together with -d to delete remote-tracking branches. Note, that itonly makes sense to delete remote-tracking branches if they no longer existin the remote repository or if git fetch was configured not to fetchthem again. See also the prune subcommand of git-remote[1] for away to clean up all obsolete remote-tracking branches.

OPTIONS

• -d
• —delete

• Delete a branch. The branch must be fully merged in itsupstream branch, or in HEAD if no upstream was set with—track or —set-upstream-to.

• -D

• Shortcut for —delete —force.

• —create-reflog

• Create the branch’s reflog. This activates recording ofall changes made to the branch ref, enabling use of datebased sha1 expressions such as "@{yesterday}".Note that in non-bare repositories, reflogs are usuallyenabled by default by the core.logAllRefUpdates config option.The negated form —no-create-reflog only overrides an earlier—create-reflog, but currently does not negate the setting ofcore.logAllRefUpdates.

• -f

• —force

• Reset to , even if existsalready. Without -f, git branch refuses to change an existing branch.In combination with -d (or —delete), allow deleting thebranch irrespective of its merged status. In combination with-m (or —move), allow renaming the branch even if the newbranch name already exists, the same applies for -c (or —copy).

• -m

• —move

• Move/rename a branch and the corresponding reflog.

• -M

• Shortcut for —move —force.

• -c

• —copy

• Copy a branch and the corresponding reflog.

• -C

• Shortcut for —copy —force.

• —color[=]

• Color branches to highlight current, local, andremote-tracking branches.The value must be always (the default), never, or auto.

• —no-color

• Turn off branch colors, even when the configuration file gives thedefault to color output.Same as —color=never.

• -i

• —ignore-case

• Sorting and filtering branches are case insensitive.

• —column[=]

• —no-column
• Display branch listing in columns. See configuration variablecolumn.branch for option syntax.—column and —no-columnwithout options are equivalent to always and never respectively.

This option is only applicable in non-verbose mode.

• -r
• —remotes

• List or delete (if used with -d) the remote-tracking branches.Combine with —list to match the optional pattern(s).

• -a

• —all

• List both remote-tracking branches and local branches.Combine with —list to match optional pattern(s).

• -l

• —list

• List branches. With optional <pattern>…, e.g. gitbranch —list 'maint-*', list only the branches that matchthe pattern(s).

• —show-current

• Print the name of the current branch. In detached HEAD state,nothing is printed.

• -v

• -vv
• —verbose

• When in list mode,show sha1 and commit subject line for each head, along withrelationship to upstream branch (if any). If given twice, printthe path of the linked worktree (if any) and the name of the upstreambranch, as well (see also git remote show <remote>). Note that thecurrent worktree’s HEAD will not have its path printed (it will alwaysbe your current directory).

• -q

• —quiet

• Be more quiet when creating or deleting a branch, suppressingnon-error messages.

• —abbrev=

• Alter the sha1’s minimum display length in the output listing.The default value is 7 and can be overridden by the core.abbrevconfig option.

• —no-abbrev

• Display the full sha1s in the output listing rather than abbreviating them.

• -t

• —track
• When creating a new branch, set up branch.<name>.remote andbranch.<name>.merge configuration entries to mark thestart-point branch as "upstream" from the new branch. Thisconfiguration will tell git to show the relationship between thetwo branches in git status and git branch -v. Furthermore,it directs git pull without arguments to pull from theupstream when the new branch is checked out.

This behavior is the default when the start point is a remote-tracking branch.Set the branch.autoSetupMerge configuration variable to false if youwant git switch, git checkout and git branch to always behave as if —no-trackwere given. Set it to always if you want this behavior when thestart-point is either a local or remote-tracking branch.

• —no-track

• Do not set up "upstream" configuration, even if thebranch.autoSetupMerge configuration variable is true.

• —set-upstream

• As this option had confusing syntax, it is no longer supported.Please use —track or —set-upstream-to instead.

• -u

• —set-upstream-to=

• Set up 's tracking information so isconsidered 's upstream branch. If no is specified, then it defaults to the current branch.

• —unset-upstream

• Remove the upstream information for . If no branchis specified it defaults to the current branch.

• —edit-description

• Open an editor and edit the text to explain what the branch isfor, to be used by various other commands (e.g. format-patch,request-pull, and merge (if enabled)). Multi-line explanationsmay be used.

• —contains []

• Only list branches which contain the specified commit (HEADif not specified). Implies —list.

• —no-contains []

• Only list branches which don’t contain the specified commit(HEAD if not specified). Implies —list.

• —merged []

• Only list branches whose tips are reachable from thespecified commit (HEAD if not specified). Implies —list,incompatible with —no-merged.

• —no-merged []

• Only list branches whose tips are not reachable from thespecified commit (HEAD if not specified). Implies —list,incompatible with —merged.

• The name of the branch to create or delete.The new branch name must pass all checks defined bygit-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checksmay restrict the characters allowed in a branch name.

• The new branch head will point to this commit. It may begiven as a branch name, a commit-id, or a tag. If thisoption is omitted, the current HEAD will be used instead.

• The name of an existing branch to rename.

• The new name for an existing branch. The same restrictions as for apply.

• —sort=

• Sort based on the key given. Prefix - to sort in descendingorder of the value. You may use the —sort= optionmultiple times, in which case the last key becomes the primarykey. The keys supported are the same as those in gitfor-each-ref. Sort order defaults to the value configured for thebranch.sort variable if exists, or to sorting based on thefull refname (including refs/… prefix). This listsdetached HEAD (if present) first, then local branches andfinally remote-tracking branches. See git-config[1].

• —points-at

CONFIGURATION

pager.branch is only respected when listing branches, i.e., when—list is used or implied. The default is to use a pager.See git-config[1].

EXAMPLES

• Start development from a known tag

$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6
$ cd my2.6
$ git branch my2.6.14 v2.6.14   (1)
$ git switch my2.6.14

• This step and the next one could be combined into a single step with"checkout -b my2.6.14 v2.6.14".

• Delete an unneeded branch

$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/.../git.git my.git
$ cd my.git
$ git branch -d -r origin/todo origin/html origin/man   (1)
$ git branch -D test                                    (2)

• Delete the remote-tracking branches "todo", "html" and "man". The nextfetch or pull will create them again unless you configure them not to.See git-fetch[1].

• Delete the "test" branch even if the "master" branch (or whichever branchis currently checked out) does not have all commits from the test branch.

• Listing branches from a specific remote

$ git branch -r -l '<remote>/<pattern>'                 (1)
$ git for-each-ref 'refs/remotes/<remote>/<pattern>'    (2)

• Using -a would conflate with any local branches you happen tohave been prefixed with the same pattern.

• for-each-ref can take a wide range of options. See git-for-each-ref[1]

Patterns will normally need quoting.

NOTES

If you are creating a branch that you want to switch to immediately,it is easier to use the "git switch" command with its -c option todo the same thing with a single command.

The options —contains, —no-contains, —merged and —no-mergedserve four related but different purposes:

• —contains <commit> is used to find all branches which will needspecial attention if were to be rebased or amended, since thosebranches contain the specified .

• —no-contains <commit> is the inverse of that, i.e. branches that don’tcontain the specified .

• —merged is used to find all branches which can be safely deleted,since those branches are fully contained by HEAD.

• —no-merged is used to find branches which are candidates for merginginto HEAD, since those branches are not fully contained by HEAD.

SEE ALSO

git-check-ref-format[1],git-fetch[1],git-remote[1],“Understanding history: What isa branch?” in the Git User’s Manual.

GIT

Part of the git[1] suite