Branches and Parallel Development

Learn how Git branches work, create feature branches, switch safely, track remote branches, and structure parallel development.

How Git Branches Work

A Git branch is essentially a movable reference pointing to a commit. Creating a branch is cheap because Git does not duplicate the entire project. As new commits are created, the branch reference advances.

The special reference HEAD identifies the currently checked-out position.

Branch References

Create and Switch Branches

git branch feature/login
git switch feature/login

git switch -c feature/profile

💡 git branch creates a branch without switching to it. git switch changes the current branch, and git switch -c creates and checks out a new branch.

Key Takeaways

Branches are lightweight references to commits.
Feature branches isolate work from the main line.
git switch -c is a convenient modern command for creating and switching.

Knowledge Check

What does a Git branch primarily represent?

git switch and git checkout

git checkout historically handled both branch switching and file restoration, which can make commands ambiguous. Modern Git provides git switch for branch operations and git restore for file restoration.

checkout remains valid and is widely encountered in existing projects, but switch and restore communicate intent more clearly.

Modern Branch Commands

git switch main
git switch -c feature/search
git branch --show-current

💡 These commands explicitly communicate branch operations and make scripts and workflows easier to understand.

Key Takeaways

git switch is focused on branch changes.
git restore is focused on restoring files.
git checkout is still valid but has multiple historical responsibilities.

Knowledge Check

Which modern command is specifically designed for switching branches?

Tracking Branches

A local branch can track a remote branch. This relationship allows commands such as git pull and git push to infer the upstream branch. You can configure it explicitly with git push -u origin feature/login.

Tracking information is metadata about branch relationships; it does not copy commits by itself.

Set an Upstream Branch

git switch -c feature/login
git push -u origin feature/login
git branch -vv

💡 The -u option establishes the remote branch as the upstream for the local branch. git branch -vv displays tracking relationships.

Key Takeaways

Upstream configuration connects a local branch with a remote-tracking branch.
git push -u commonly establishes the relationship during the first push.

Knowledge Check

What does `git push -u origin feature/login` commonly configure?

Listing, Renaming, and Deleting Branches

Git provides commands for managing branch references. Local branches can be listed with git branch, renamed with git branch -m, and deleted with git branch -d. Remote branches can be removed using git push origin --delete branch-name.

Deleting a branch does not automatically delete commits if those commits are still reachable through another reference.

Branch Maintenance

git branch
git branch -a
git branch -m old-name new-name
git branch -d feature/login
git push origin --delete feature/login

💡 These commands inspect local and remote-tracking branches, rename a local branch, delete a merged local branch, and remove a branch from the remote.

Key Takeaways

Use -d for safe deletion of merged branches.
Use -D only when intentionally forcing deletion.
Remote branch deletion is a push operation.

Knowledge Check

Which command safely deletes a merged local branch?

How Git Branches Work

git switch and git checkout

Tracking Branches

Listing, Renaming, and Deleting Branches

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