In our case we will execute git checkout main. If needed, execute git checkout to switch to the receiving branch. Confirm the receiving branchĮxecute git status to ensure that HEAD is pointing to the correct merge-receiving branch. Preparing to mergeīefore performing a merge there are a couple of preparation steps to take to ensure the merge goes smoothly. This scenario is a version control conflict and Git will need user intervention to continue. If Git encounters a piece of data that is changed in both histories it will be unable to automatically combine them. When creating a merge commit Git will attempt to auto magically merge the separate histories for you. Merge commits are unique against other commits in the fact that they have two parent commits. Git will determine the merge algorithm automatically (discussed below). Invoking this command will merge the specified branch feature into the current branch, we'll assume main. We now want to merge this feature branch into main. Say we have a new branch feature that is based off the main branch. Once Git finds a common base commit it will create a new 'merge commit' that combines the changes of each queued merge commit sequence. The following examples in this document will focus on this branch merging pattern. In these scenarios, git merge takes two commit pointers, usually the branch tips, and will find a common base commit between them. Git merge will combine multiple sequences of commits into one unified history. In the most frequent use cases, git merge is used to combine two branches. Again, this means that git merge is often used in conjunction with git checkout for selecting the current branch and git branch -d for deleting the obsolete target branch. The current branch will be updated to reflect the merge, but the target branch will be completely unaffected. Note that all of the commands presented below merge into the current branch. The git merge command lets you take the independent lines of development created by git branch and integrate them into a single branch. Moreover, the git log command shows no new commit on master.Merging is Git's way of putting a forked history back together again. For example, the removed file Readme.md has come back. Next, let's switch back to the master branch and check if it's unmodified: $ git switch masterĪs we've seen, on the master branch, all changes to the working tree files we made previously have been restored. Then, we've committed the changes to the feature2 branch. Further, all uncommitted changes have been moved from master to the feature2 branch. & git commit -m 'feature2 is done'ġ file changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)Īs we can see in the output above, git switch -C creates a new branch feature2 and brings us to feature2. Next, let's use the git switch command to move these uncommitted changes to a new branch called feature2: $ git switch -C feature2 This time, we've removed the file Readme.md and added a new ReadmeNew.md file. Next, let's do the same test as git checkout -b on the myRepo project: $ git branchĪs we can see in the output above, we're currently on the master branch. It works pretty much the same as the git checkout -b command. Moreover, we can use the -C option to create a new branch and switch to it in one shot. As its name implies, git switch allows us to switch between branches. Therefore, Git has introduced the git switch command since version 2.23 to clear some of the confusion from the checkout command's overloaded usage. The usage of the checkout command is pretty overloaded. The same command can do many different kinds of operations, such as restoring the working tree files, switching branches, creating branches, moving the head, and so on. Further, there is no new commit on master, either.Īs we've known, Git's checkout command is like a Swiss Army knife. There is no local change on the master branch, as we can see in the output. Now, let's switch back to the master branch and check if we've left it unchanged: $ git checkout master Next, let's stage and commit the changes: $ git add. No changes added to commit (use 'git add' and/or 'git commit -a')Īs the commands above show, we've created the feature1 branch and moved all uncommitted changes from master to feature1. ' to discard changes in working directory) Next, let's test the git checkout command on our myRepo project: $ git branch Moreover, this command will leave the current branch as it is and bring all uncommitted changes to the new branch. The git checkout -b command will create a new branch and switch to it.

Github desktop merge master into branch