NAME

       git-branch - List, create, or delete branches

SYNOPSIS

       git branch [--color[=<when>] | --no-color] [--show-current]
               [-v [--abbrev=<n> | --no-abbrev]]
               [--column[=<options>] | --no-column] [--sort=<key>]
               [--merged [<commit>]] [--no-merged [<commit>]]
               [--contains [<commit>]] [--no-contains [<commit>]]
               [--points-at <object>] [--format=<format>]
               [(-r | --remotes) | (-a | --all)]
               [--list] [<pattern>...]
       git branch [--track[=(direct|inherit)] | --no-track] [-f]
               [--recurse-submodules] <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, existing branches are listed; the current
       branch will be highlighted in green and marked with an asterisk. Any branches checked out in linked
       worktrees will be highlighted in cyan and marked with a plus sign. Option -r causes the remote-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 to matching branches. If
       multiple patterns are given, a branch is shown if it matches any of the patterns.

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

       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), --no-contains inverts it. 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.
       If the <commit> argument is missing it defaults to HEAD (i.e. the tip of the current branch).

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

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

       When a local branch is started off a remote-tracking branch, Git sets up the branch (specifically the
       branch.<name>.remote and branch.<name>.merge configuration entries) so that git pull will appropriately
       merge from the remote-tracking branch. This behavior may be changed via the global branch.autoSetupMerge
       configuration flag. That setting can be overridden by using the --track and --no-track options, and
       changed 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 branch
       renaming. If <newbranch> exists, -M must be used to force the rename to happen.

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

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

       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 the remote repository or if git fetch was configured
       not to fetch them again. See also the prune subcommand of git-remote(1) for a way to clean up all
       obsolete remote-tracking branches.

OPTIONS

       -d, --delete
           Delete a branch. The branch must be fully merged in its upstream 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 of all changes made to the branch ref, enabling
           use of date based sha1 expressions such as "<branchname>@{yesterday}". Note that in non-bare
           repositories, reflogs are usually enabled 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 of core.logAllRefUpdates.

       -f, --force
           Reset <branchname> to <start-point>, even if <branchname> exists already. Without -f, git branch
           refuses to change an existing branch. In combination with -d (or --delete), allow deleting the branch
           irrespective of its merged status, or whether it even points to a valid commit. In combination with
           -m (or --move), allow renaming the branch even if the new branch name already exists, the same
           applies for -c (or --copy).

           Note that git branch -f <branchname> [<start-point>], even with -f, refuses to change an existing
           branch <branchname> that is checked out in another worktree linked to the same repository.

       -m, --move
           Move/rename a branch, together with its config and reflog.

       -M
           Shortcut for --move --force.

       -c, --copy
           Copy a branch, together with its config and reflog.

       -C
           Shortcut for --copy --force.

       --color[=<when>]
           Color branches to highlight current, local, and remote-tracking branches. The value must be always
           (the default), never, or auto.

       --no-color
           Turn off branch colors, even when the configuration file gives the default to color output. Same as
           --color=never.

       -i, --ignore-case
           Sorting and filtering branches are case insensitive.

       --omit-empty
           Do not print a newline after formatted refs where the format expands to the empty string.

       --column[=<options>], --no-column
           Display branch listing in columns. See configuration variable column.branch for option syntax.
           --column and --no-column without 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.  git branch --list 'maint-*', list only the branches
           that match the 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 with relationship to
           upstream branch (if any). If given twice, print the path of the linked worktree (if any) and the name
           of the upstream branch, as well (see also git remote show <remote>). Note that the current worktree’s
           HEAD will not have its path printed (it will always be your current directory).

       -q, --quiet
           Be more quiet when creating or deleting a branch, suppressing non-error messages.

       --abbrev=<n>
           In the verbose listing that show the commit object name, show the shortest prefix that is at least
           <n> hexdigits long that uniquely refers the object. The default value is 7 and can be overridden by
           the core.abbrev config option.

       --no-abbrev
           Display the full sha1s in the output listing rather than abbreviating them.

       -t, --track[=(direct|inherit)]
           When creating a new branch, set up branch.<name>.remote and branch.<name>.merge configuration entries
           to set "upstream" tracking configuration for 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.

           The exact upstream branch is chosen depending on the optional argument: -t, --track, or
           --track=direct means to use the start-point branch itself as the upstream; --track=inherit means to
           copy the upstream configuration of the start-point branch.

           The branch.autoSetupMerge configuration variable specifies how git switch, git checkout and git
           branch should behave when neither --track nor --no-track are specified:

           The default option, true, behaves as though --track=direct were given whenever the start-point is a
           remote-tracking branch.  false behaves as if --no-track were given.  always behaves as though
           --track=direct were given.  inherit behaves as though --track=inherit were given.  simple behaves as
           though --track=direct were given only when the start-point is a remote-tracking branch and the new
           branch has the same name as the remote branch.

           See git-pull(1) and git-config(1) for additional discussion on how the branch.<name>.remote and
           branch.<name>.merge options are used.

       --no-track
           Do not set up "upstream" configuration, even if the branch.autoSetupMerge configuration variable is
           set.

       --recurse-submodules
           THIS OPTION IS EXPERIMENTAL! Causes the current command to recurse into submodules if
           submodule.propagateBranches is enabled. See submodule.propagateBranches in git-config(1). Currently,
           only branch creation is supported.

           When used in branch creation, a new branch <branchname> will be created in the superproject and all
           of the submodules in the superproject’s <start-point>. In submodules, the branch will point to the
           submodule commit in the superproject’s <start-point> but the branch’s tracking information will be
           set up based on the submodule’s branches and remotes e.g.  git branch --recurse-submodules topic
           origin/main will create the submodule branch "topic" that points to the submodule commit in the
           superproject’s "origin/main", but tracks the submodule’s "origin/main".

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

       -u <upstream>, --set-upstream-to=<upstream>
           Set up <branchname>'s tracking information so <upstream> is considered <branchname>'s upstream
           branch. If no <branchname> is specified, then it defaults to the current branch.

       --unset-upstream
           Remove the upstream information for <branchname>. If no branch is specified it defaults to the
           current branch.

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

       --contains [<commit>]
           Only list branches which contain the specified commit (HEAD if not specified). Implies --list.

       --no-contains [<commit>]
           Only list branches which don’t contain the specified commit (HEAD if not specified). Implies --list.

       --merged [<commit>]
           Only list branches whose tips are reachable from the specified commit (HEAD if not specified).
           Implies --list.

       --no-merged [<commit>]
           Only list branches whose tips are not reachable from the specified commit (HEAD if not specified).
           Implies --list.

       <branchname>
           The name of the branch to create or delete. The new branch name must pass all checks defined by git-
           check-ref-format(1). Some of these checks may restrict the characters allowed in a branch name.

       <start-point>
           The new branch head will point to this commit. It may be given as a branch name, a commit-id, or a
           tag. If this option is omitted, the current HEAD will be used instead.

       <oldbranch>
           The name of an existing branch to rename.

       <newbranch>
           The new name for an existing branch. The same restrictions as for <branchname> apply.

       --sort=<key>
           Sort based on the key given. Prefix - to sort in descending order of the value. You may use the
           --sort=<key> option multiple times, in which case the last key becomes the primary key. The keys
           supported are the same as those in git for-each-ref. Sort order defaults to the value configured for
           the branch.sort variable if it exists, or to sorting based on the full refname (including refs/...
           prefix). This lists detached HEAD (if present) first, then local branches and finally remote-tracking
           branches. See git-config(1).

       --points-at <object>
           Only list branches of the given object.

       --format <format>
           A string that interpolates %(fieldname) from a branch ref being shown and the object it points at.
           The format is the same as that of git-for-each-ref(1).

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).

       Everything above this line in this section isn’t included from the git-config(1) documentation. The
       content that follows is the same as what’s found there:

       branch.autoSetupMerge
           Tells git branch, git switch and git checkout to set up new branches so that git-pull(1) will
           appropriately merge from the starting point branch. Note that even if this option is not set, this
           behavior can be chosen per-branch using the --track and --no-track options. The valid settings are:
           false — no automatic setup is done; true — automatic setup is done when the starting point is a
           remote-tracking branch; always —  automatic setup is done when the starting point is either a local
           branch or remote-tracking branch; inherit — if the starting point has a tracking configuration, it is
           copied to the new branch; simple — automatic setup is done only when the starting point is a
           remote-tracking branch and the new branch has the same name as the remote branch. This option
           defaults to true.

       branch.autoSetupRebase
           When a new branch is created with git branch, git switch or git checkout that tracks another branch,
           this variable tells Git to set up pull to rebase instead of merge (see "branch.<name>.rebase"). When
           never, rebase is never automatically set to true. When local, rebase is set to true for tracked
           branches of other local branches. When remote, rebase is set to true for tracked branches of
           remote-tracking branches. When always, rebase will be set to true for all tracking branches. See
           "branch.autoSetupMerge" for details on how to set up a branch to track another branch. This option
           defaults to never.

       branch.sort
           This variable controls the sort ordering of branches when displayed by git-branch(1). Without the
           "--sort=<value>" option provided, the value of this variable will be used as the default. See git-
           for-each-ref(1) field names for valid values.

       branch.<name>.remote
           When on branch <name>, it tells git fetch and git push which remote to fetch from or push to. The
           remote to push to may be overridden with remote.pushDefault (for all branches). The remote to push
           to, for the current branch, may be further overridden by branch.<name>.pushRemote. If no remote is
           configured, or if you are not on any branch and there is more than one remote defined in the
           repository, it defaults to origin for fetching and remote.pushDefault for pushing. Additionally, .
           (a period) is the current local repository (a dot-repository), see branch.<name>.merge's final note
           below.

       branch.<name>.pushRemote
           When on branch <name>, it overrides branch.<name>.remote for pushing. It also overrides
           remote.pushDefault for pushing from branch <name>. When you pull from one place (e.g. your upstream)
           and push to another place (e.g. your own publishing repository), you would want to set
           remote.pushDefault to specify the remote to push to for all branches, and use this option to override
           it for a specific branch.

       branch.<name>.merge
           Defines, together with branch.<name>.remote, the upstream branch for the given branch. It tells git
           fetch/git pull/git rebase which branch to merge and can also affect git push (see push.default). When
           in branch <name>, it tells git fetch the default refspec to be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The
           value is handled like the remote part of a refspec, and must match a ref which is fetched from the
           remote given by "branch.<name>.remote". The merge information is used by git pull (which first calls
           git fetch) to lookup the default branch for merging. Without this option, git pull defaults to merge
           the first refspec fetched. Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge. If you wish to setup git
           pull so that it merges into <name> from another branch in the local repository, you can point
           branch.<name>.merge to the desired branch, and use the relative path setting .  (a period) for
           branch.<name>.remote.

       branch.<name>.mergeOptions
           Sets default options for merging into branch <name>. The syntax and supported options are the same as
           those of git-merge(1), but option values containing whitespace characters are currently not
           supported.

       branch.<name>.rebase
           When true, rebase the branch <name> on top of the fetched branch, instead of merging the default
           branch from the default remote when "git pull" is run. See "pull.rebase" for doing this in a non
           branch-specific manner.

           When merges (or just m), pass the --rebase-merges option to git rebase so that the local merge
           commits are included in the rebase (see git-rebase(1) for details).

           When the value is interactive (or just i), the rebase is run in interactive mode.

           NOTE: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do not use it unless you understand the implications
           (see git-rebase(1) for details).

       branch.<name>.description
           Branch description, can be edited with git branch --edit-description. Branch description is
           automatically added to the format-patch cover letter or request-pull summary.

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

            1. 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)

            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 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.

       Listing branches from a specific remote

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

            1. Using -a would conflate <remote> with any local branches you happen to have been
               prefixed with the same <remote> pattern.
            2. 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 to do the same thing with a single command.

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

       •   --contains <commit> is used to find all branches which will need special attention if <commit> were
           to be rebased or amended, since those branches contain the specified <commit>.

       •   --no-contains <commit> is the inverse of that, i.e. branches that don’t contain the specified
           <commit>.

       •   --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 merging into HEAD, since those branches
           are not fully contained by HEAD.

       When combining multiple --contains and --no-contains filters, only references that contain at least one
       of the --contains commits and contain none of the --no-contains commits are shown.

       When combining multiple --merged and --no-merged filters, only references that are reachable from at
       least one of the --merged commits and from none of the --no-merged commits are shown.

SEE ALSO

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

GIT

       Part of the git(1) suite

NOTES

        1. “Understanding history: What is a branch?”
           file:///usr/share/doc/git/html/user-manual.html#what-is-a-branch