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DESCRIPTION
-----------
-With no arguments, existing branches are listed, the current branch will
+With no arguments, existing branches are listed and the current branch will
be highlighted with an asterisk. Option `-r` causes the remote-tracking
branches to be listed, and option `-a` shows both.
-With `--contains`, shows only the branches that contains the named commit
-(in other words, the branches whose tip commits are descendant of the
+With `--contains`, shows only the branches that contain the named commit
+(in other words, the branches whose tip commits are descendants of the
named commit). With `--merged`, only branches merged into the named
commit (i.e. the branches whose tip commits are reachable from the named
commit) will be listed. With `--no-merged` only branches not merged into
-the named commit will be listed. Missing <commit> argument defaults to
-'HEAD' (i.e. the tip of the current branch).
+the named commit will be listed. If the <commit> argument is missing it
+defaults to 'HEAD' (i.e. the tip of the current branch).
-In its second form, a new branch named <branchname> will be created.
+In the command's second form, a new branch named <branchname> will be created.
It will start out with a head equal to the one given as <start-point>.
If no <start-point> is given, the branch will be created with a head
equal to that of the currently checked out branch.
Use -r together with -d to delete remote-tracking branches. Note, that it
only makes sense to delete remote-tracking branches if they no longer exist
-in remote repository or if 'git-fetch' was configured not to fetch
-them again. See also 'prune' subcommand of linkgit:git-remote[1] for way to
-clean up all obsolete remote-tracking branches.
+in the remote repository or if 'git-fetch' was configured not to fetch
+them again. See also the 'prune' subcommand of linkgit:git-remote[1] for a
+way to clean up all obsolete remote-tracking branches.
OPTIONS
based sha1 expressions such as "<branchname>@\{yesterday}".
-f::
- Force the creation of a new branch even if it means deleting
- a branch that already exists with the same name.
+ Reset <branchname> to <startpoint> if <branchname> exists
+ already. Without `-f` 'git-branch' refuses to change an existing branch.
-m::
Move/rename a branch and the corresponding reflog.
-M::
- Move/rename a branch even if the new branchname already exists.
+ Move/rename a branch even if the new branch name already exists.
--color::
Color branches to highlight current, local, and remote branches.
-v::
--verbose::
- Show sha1 and commit subject line for each head.
+ Show sha1 and commit subject line for each head, along with
+ relationship to upstream branch (if any). If given twice, print
+ the name of the upstream branch, as well.
--abbrev=<length>::
- Alter minimum display length for sha1 in output listing,
- default value is 7.
+ Alter the sha1's minimum display length in the output listing.
+ The default value is 7.
--no-abbrev::
- Display the full sha1s in output listing rather than abbreviating them.
+ Display the full sha1s in the output listing rather than abbreviating them.
--track::
- When creating a new branch, set up configuration so that 'git-pull'
- will automatically retrieve data from the start point, which must be
- a branch. Use this if you always pull from the same upstream branch
- into the new branch, and if you don't want to use "git pull
- <repository> <refspec>" explicitly. This behavior is the default
- when the start point is a remote branch. Set the
- branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable to `false` if you want
- 'git-checkout' and 'git-branch' to always behave as if '--no-track' were
- given. Set it to `always` if you want this behavior when the
- start-point is either a local or remote branch.
+ When creating a new branch, set up configuration to mark the
+ start-point branch as "upstream" from the new branch. This
+ configuration will tell git to show the relationship between the
+ two branches in `git status` and `git branch -v`. Furthermore,
+ it directs `git pull` without arguments to pull from the
+ upstream when the new branch is checked out.
++
+This behavior is the default when the start point is a remote branch.
+Set the branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable to `false` if you
+want `git checkout` and `git branch` to always behave as if '--no-track'
+were given. Set it to `always` if you want this behavior when the
+start-point is either a local or remote branch.
--no-track::
- Ignore the branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable.
+ Do not set up "upstream" configuration, even if the
+ branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable is true.
--contains <commit>::
Only list branches which contain the specified commit.
<newbranch>::
The new name for an existing branch. The same restrictions as for
- <branchname> applies.
+ <branchname> apply.
Examples
--------
-Start development off of a known tag::
+Start development from a known tag::
+
------------
$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6
<1> This step and the next one could be combined into a single step with
"checkout -b my2.6.14 v2.6.14".
-Delete unneeded branch::
+Delete an unneeded branch::
+
------------
$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/.../git.git my.git
$ git branch -D test <2>
------------
+
-<1> Delete remote-tracking branches "todo", "html", "man". Next 'fetch' or
-'pull' will create them again unless you configure them not to. See
-linkgit:git-fetch[1].
-<2> Delete "test" branch even if the "master" branch (or whichever branch is
-currently checked out) does not have all commits from test branch.
+<1> Delete the remote-tracking branches "todo", "html" and "man". The next
+'fetch' or 'pull' will create them again unless you configure them not to.
+See linkgit:git-fetch[1].
+<2> Delete the "test" branch even if the "master" branch (or whichever branch
+is currently checked out) does not have all commits from the test branch.
Notes
-----
-If you are creating a branch that you want to immediately checkout, it's
+If you are creating a branch that you want to checkout immediately, it is
easier to use the git checkout command with its `-b` option to create
a branch and check it out with a single command.
-The options `--contains`, `--merged` and `--no-merged` serves three related
+The options `--contains`, `--merged` and `--no-merged` serve three related
but different purposes:
- `--contains <commit>` is used to find all branches which will need