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| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/git-checkout.adoc | 16 |
1 files changed, 7 insertions, 9 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/git-checkout.adoc b/Documentation/git-checkout.adoc index c4fa555f94..7d7505ad40 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-checkout.adoc +++ b/Documentation/git-checkout.adoc @@ -30,11 +30,11 @@ DESCRIPTION See ARGUMENT DISAMBIGUATION below for how Git decides which one to do. `git checkout [<branch>]`:: - To prepare for working on _<branch>_, switch to it by updating - the index and the files in the working tree, and by pointing - `HEAD` at the branch. Local modifications to the files in the - working tree are kept, so that they can be committed to the - _<branch>_. + Switch to _<branch>_. This sets the current branch to _<branch>_ and + updates the files in your working directory. The checkout will fail + if there are uncommitted changes to any files where _<branch>_ and + your current commit have different content. Uncommitted changes will + otherwise be kept. + If _<branch>_ is not found but there does exist a tracking branch in exactly one remote (call it _<remote>_) with a matching name and @@ -44,10 +44,8 @@ exactly one remote (call it _<remote>_) with a matching name and $ git checkout -b <branch> --track <remote>/<branch> ------------ + -You could omit _<branch>_, in which case the command degenerates to -"check out the current branch", which is a glorified no-op with -rather expensive side-effects to show only the tracking information, -if it exists, for the current branch. +Running `git checkout` without specifying a branch has no effect except +to print out the tracking information for the current branch. `git checkout (-b|-B) <new-branch> [<start-point>]`:: |