# git-switch

## NAME



           git-switch - Switch branches
    


## SYNOPSIS



           **git switch**[_< options>_] [**--no-guess**] _< branch>_
           **git switch**[_< options>_] **--detach**[_< start-point>_]
           **git switch**[_< options>_] (**-c** |**-C**) _< new-branch>_ [_< start-point>_]
           **git switch**[_< options>_] **--orphan** _< new-branch>_
    


## DESCRIPTION



           Switch to a specified branch. The working tree and the index are
           updated to match the branch. All new commits will be added to the
           tip of this branch.
    
           Optionally a new branch could be created with either **-c** , **-C** ,
           automatically from a remote branch of same name (see **--guess**), or
           detach the working tree from any branch with **--detach** , along with
           switching.
    
           Switching branches does not require a clean index and working tree
           (i.e. no differences compared to **HEAD**). The operation is aborted
           however if the operation leads to loss of local changes, unless
           told otherwise with **--discard-changes** or **--merge**.
    


## OPTIONS



           _< branch>_
               Branch to switch to.
    
           _< new-branch>_
               Name for the new branch.
    
           _< start-point>_
               The starting point for the new branch. Specifying a
               _< start-point>_ allows you to create a branch based on some
               other point in history than where **HEAD** currently points. (Or,
               in the case of **--detach** , allows you to inspect and detach from
               some other point.)
    
               You can use the **@**{-_< N>_} syntax to refer to the _< N>_-th last
               branch/commit switched to using **git switch** or **git checkout**
               operation. You may also specify **-** which is synonymous to
               **@**{-1}. This is often used to switch quickly between two
               branches, or to undo a branch switch by mistake.
    
               As a special case, you may use _< rev-a>_**...**_< rev-b>_ as a shortcut
               for the merge base of _< rev-a>_ and _< rev-b>_ if there is exactly
               one merge base. You can leave out at most one of _< rev-a>_ and
               _< rev-b>_, in which case it defaults to **HEAD**.
    
           **-c** _< new-branch>_, **--create** _< new-branch>_
               Create a new branch named _< new-branch>_ starting at
               _< start-point>_ before switching to the branch. This is the
               transactional equivalent of
    
                   $ git branch <new-branch>
                   $ git switch <new-branch>
    
               that is to say, the branch is not reset/created unless **git**
               **switch** is successful (e.g., when the branch is in use in
               another worktree, not just the current branch stays the same,
               but the branch is not reset to the start-point, either).
    
           **-C** _< new-branch>_, **--force-create** _< new-branch>_
               Similar to **--create** except that if _< new-branch>_ already
               exists, it will be reset to _< start-point>_. This is a
               convenient shortcut for:
    
                   $ git branch -f _<new-branch>_
                   $ git switch _<new-branch>_
    
           **-d** , **--detach**
               Switch to a commit for inspection and discardable experiments.
               See the "DETACHED HEAD" section in git-checkout(1) for
               details.
    
           **--guess** , **--no-guess**
               If _< branch>_ is not found but there does exist a tracking
               branch in exactly one remote (call it _< remote>_) with a
               matching name, treat as equivalent to
    
                   $ git switch -c <branch> --track <remote>/<branch>
    
               If the branch exists in multiple remotes and one of them is
               named by the **checkout.defaultRemote** configuration variable,
               we’ll use that one for the purposes of disambiguation, even if
               the _< branch>_ isn’t unique across all remotes. Set it to e.g.
               **checkout.defaultRemote=origin** to always checkout remote
               branches from there if _< branch>_ is ambiguous but exists on the
               _origin_ remote. See also **checkout.defaultRemote** in
               git-config(1).
    
               **--guess** is the default behavior. Use **--no-guess** to disable it.
    
               The default behavior can be set via the **checkout.guess**
               configuration variable.
    
           **-f** , **--force**
               An alias for **--discard-changes**.
    
           **--discard-changes**
               Proceed even if the index or the working tree differs from
               **HEAD**. Both the index and working tree are restored to match
               the switching target. If **--recurse-submodules** is specified,
               submodule content is also restored to match the switching
               target. This is used to throw away local changes.
    
           **-m** , **--merge**
               If you have local modifications to one or more files that are
               different between the current branch and the branch to which
               you are switching, the command refuses to switch branches in
               order to preserve your modifications in context. However, with
               this option, a three-way merge between the current branch,
               your working tree contents, and the new branch is done, and
               you will be on the new branch.
    
               When a merge conflict happens, the index entries for
               conflicting paths are left unmerged, and you need to resolve
               the conflicts and mark the resolved paths with **git add**(or **git**
               **rm** if the merge should result in deletion of the path).
    
           **--conflict=**_< style>_
               The same as **--merge** option above, but changes the way the
               conflicting hunks are presented, overriding the
               **merge.conflictStyle** configuration variable. Possible values
               are **merge**(default), **diff3** , and **zdiff3**.
    
           **-q** , **--quiet**
               Quiet, suppress feedback messages.
    
           **--progress** , **--no-progress**
               Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by
               default when it is attached to a terminal, unless **--quiet** is
               specified. This flag enables progress reporting even if not
               attached to a terminal, regardless of **--quiet**.
    
           **-t** , **--track**[ (**direct** |**inherit**)]
               When creating a new branch, set up "upstream" configuration.
               **-c** is implied. See **--track** in git-branch(1) for details.
    
               If no **-c** option is given, the name of the new branch will be
               derived from the remote-tracking branch, by looking at the
               local part of the refspec configured for the corresponding
               remote, and then stripping the initial part up to the "*".
               This would tell us to use **hack** as the local branch when
               branching off of **origin/hack**(or **remotes/origin/hack** , or even
               **refs/remotes/origin/hack**). If the given name has no slash, or
               the above guessing results in an empty name, the guessing is
               aborted. You can explicitly give a name with **-c** in such a
               case.
    
           **--no-track**
               Do not set up "upstream" configuration, even if the
               **branch.autoSetupMerge** configuration variable is true.
    
           **--orphan** _< new-branch>_
               Create a new unborn branch, named _< new-branch>_. All tracked
               files are removed.
    
           **--ignore-other-worktrees**
               **git switch** refuses when the wanted ref is already checked out
               by another worktree. This option makes it check the ref out
               anyway. In other words, the ref can be held by more than one
               worktree.
    
           **--recurse-submodules** , **--no-recurse-submodules**
               Using **--recurse-submodules** will update the content of all
               active submodules according to the commit recorded in the
               superproject. If nothing (or **--no-recurse-submodules**) is used,
               submodules working trees will not be updated. Just like
               git-submodule(1), this will detach **HEAD** of the submodules.
    


## EXAMPLES



           The following command switches to the "master" branch:
    
               $ git switch master
    
           After working in the wrong branch, switching to the correct branch
           would be done using:
    
               $ git switch mytopic
    
           However, your "wrong" branch and correct "mytopic" branch may
           differ in files that you have modified locally, in which case the
           above switch would fail like this:
    
               $ git switch mytopic
               error: You have local changes to 'frotz'; not switching branches.
    
           You can give the **-m** flag to the command, which would try a
           three-way merge:
    
               $ git switch -m mytopic
               Auto-merging frotz
    
           After this three-way merge, the local modifications are _not_
           registered in your index file, so **git diff** would show you what
           changes you made since the tip of the new branch.
    
           To switch back to the previous branch before we switched to
           mytopic (i.e. "master" branch):
    
               $ git switch -
    
           You can grow a new branch from any commit. For example, switch to
           "**HEAD~3** " and create branch "**fixup** ":
    
               $ git switch -c fixup HEAD~3
               Switched to a new branch 'fixup'
    
           If you want to start a new branch from a remote branch of the same
           name:
    
               $ git switch new-topic
               Branch `new-topic` set up to track remote branch `new-topic` from `origin`
               Switched to a new branch `new-topic`
    
           To check out commit **HEAD~3** for temporary inspection or experiment
           without creating a new branch:
    
               $ git switch --detach HEAD~3
               HEAD is now at 9fc9555312 Merge branch 'cc/shared-index-permbits'
    
           If it turns out whatever you have done is worth keeping, you can
           always create a new name for it (without switching away):
    
               $ git switch -c good-surprises
    


## CONFIGURATION



           Everything below this line in this section is selectively included
           from the git-config(1) documentation. The content is the same as
           what’s found there:
    
           **checkout.defaultRemote**
               When you run **git checkout** _< something>_ or **git switch**
               _< something>_ and only have one remote, it may implicitly fall
               back on checking out and tracking e.g.  **origin/**_< something>_.
               This stops working as soon as you have more than one remote
               with a _< something>_ reference. This setting allows for setting
               the name of a preferred remote that should always win when it
               comes to disambiguation. The typical use-case is to set this
               to **origin**.
    
               Currently this is used by git-switch(1) and git-checkout(1)
               when **git checkout** _< something>_ or **git switch** _< something>_ will
               checkout the _< something>_ branch on another remote, and by
               git-worktree(1) when **git worktree add** refers to a remote
               branch. This setting might be used for other checkout-like
               commands or functionality in the future.
    
           **checkout.guess**
               Provides the default value for the **--guess** or **--no-guess**
               option in **git checkout** and **git switch**. See git-switch(1) and
               git-checkout(1).
    
           **checkout.workers**
               The number of parallel workers to use when updating the
               working tree. The default is one, i.e. sequential execution.
               If set to a value less than one, Git will use as many workers
               as the number of logical cores available. This setting and
               **checkout.thresholdForParallelism** affect all commands that
               perform checkout. E.g. checkout, clone, reset,
               sparse-checkout, etc.
    
                   **Note**
                   Parallel checkout usually delivers better performance for
                   repositories located on SSDs or over NFS. For repositories
                   on spinning disks and/or machines with a small number of
                   cores, the default sequential checkout often performs
                   better. The size and compression level of a repository
                   might also influence how well the parallel version
                   performs.
    
           **checkout.thresholdForParallelism**
               When running parallel checkout with a small number of files,
               the cost of subprocess spawning and inter-process
               communication might outweigh the parallelization gains. This
               setting allows you to define the minimum number of files for
               which parallel checkout should be attempted. The default is
               100.
    


## GIT



           Part of the git(1) suite
    


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