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In this article, we will learn how to switch branches in Git.

Git is a distributed version control system and is an excellent tool for version control in a collaborative development environment. In Git, we create repositories, and in repositories, we create branches to track various development work.

We often create a new branch from the mainline to fix bugs or develop new features. Therefore, since we have multiple branches in our Git repository, we often switch between branches.

We will now illustrate this with an example.

git checkoutSwitch between branches in Git using

We have multiple team members or teams working on the same project repository in Git in a collaborative development environment.

Git provides us with tools to create multiple branches in our repository. Therefore, many teams or team members working on the same or different parts of the project will create branches for them to work on.

In Git, we can easily switch between branches created in the Git repository. One of the easiest ways to switch between branches is by using git checkoutthe command.

The command syntax for switching to an existing branch is git checkout <existing_branch>. So, let's say we have a branch called in our repository featureand we are currently mainin a branch called .

We can git branchlist the branches using the command.

git branch
* main
  feature

We will execute git checkoutthe command to switch to featurethe branch.

$ git checkout feature
Switched to branch 'feature'

Suppose we want to switch to a branch that doesn't exist, create a new branch, and then switch to it.

We can do this using with -bthe option .git checkout

$ git checkout -b bug-fixes
Switched to a new branch 'bug-fixes'

Therefore, we created a bug-fixesbranch and switched to it using the above command.

In Git, git switchuse

Another way to switch branches in Git is to use git switchthe command.

So, git checkoutjust like with the command, to switch to an existing branch i.e. feature, we will execute git switchthe command.

$ git switch feature 
Switched to branch 'feature'

Furthermore, if we want to create a new branch and then switch to it, we can git switchdo so using the command.

We have to use option git switchin command .-c

$ git switch -c new-feature
Switched to a new branch 'new-feature'

So, we now create a new branch, ie. 新功能and switch to it.

Check out remote branches in Git using the git checkoutand options-t

Sometimes, we may want to switch to branches created by other team members. These branches will be in remote repositories, and we are interested in checking out these remote branches.

To checkout a remote branch, git checkoutthe syntax is git checkout -t <remote>/<branch>.

Suppose we have a branch called in our remote repository releaseand we want to check out that branch.

First, we need to execute git fetchthe command to download objects and references from the remote repository.

We will then -texecute git checkoutthe command with the -p option.

$ git fetch
$ git checkout -t origin/release
Branch 'release' set up to track remote branch 'release' from 'origin'.
Switched to a new branch 'release'

So, we checked out the remote branch i.e. in the remote repository given releaseby the alias origin. Note that originis the default alias for our remote repository URL.

git checkoutThe option is -tused for tracking. It is used to create a branch and automatically set the upstream branch as the remote branch.

So, as shown above, the remote tracking information is automatically set. Thus, we have shown how to switch between branches in Git.

For more information, visit these links.

• git-checkout
• git-switch