Git: Branch Management

Branch management in Git involves creating, listing, switching, renaming, and deleting branches. Branches allow you to work on different features or fixes independently without affecting the main codebase.

Create a new branch

To create a new branch, use the following command:

Basic command to create a new branch

git branch <branch-name>

Replace <branch-name> with the desired name for your new branch.

Create and switch to a new branch

git checkout -b <branch-name>

This command creates a new branch and switches to it immediately.

List branches

To list branches in your repository, use:

List local branches

git branch

List ALL branches (local+remote)

git branch -a

Switch between branches

To switch to a different branch, use:

git checkout <branch-name>

Replace <branch-name> with the name of the branch you want to switch to.

git switch <branch-name>

This is an alternative command to switch branches, introduced in Git 2.23.

Upstream branch

Upstream is a remote branch that your local branch tracks e.g. synchronizes with when you run git pull or git push.

Check current upstream

git branch -vv

This command shows the current branch and its upstream branch.

Set upstream branch

When a branch is created locally, it does not have an upstream branch set by default. You can set the upstream branch when you push the branch for the first time using:

git push -u origin <branch-name>

If the branch <branch-name> does not exist on the remote, it will be created and set as the upstream for your local branch.

Without the -u flag, the branch will be pushed but not set as upstream.

Alternatively, you can set or change the upstream branch for an existing local branch using:

git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/feature/branch-name feature/branch-name

Where feature/branch-name is the name of your local branch and origin/feature/branch-name is the corresponding remote branch.

Delete a branch

Delete a local branch

git branch -d <branch-name>

This command deletes the specified local branch. It will only delete the branch if it has been fully merged.

git branch -D <branch-name>

This command forcefully deletes the specified local branch, even if it hasn't been merged.

Delete a remote branch

git push origin --delete <branch-name>

This command deletes the specified branch from the remote repository.

Rename a branch

Rename a local branch

git branch -m <new-branch-name>

This command renames the current branch to <new-branch-name>.

Rename a different local branch

git branch -m <old-branch-name> <new-branch-name>

This command renames <old-branch-name> to <new-branch-name>.

Rename a remote branch

Renaming a remote branch involves deleting the old branch and pushing the renamed local branch to the remote:

git push origin --delete <old-branch-name>

This command deletes the old branch on the remote.

git push -u origin <new-branch-name>

This command pushes the local branch to the remote and sets it as the upstream branch.