Mastering Git Branching Basics: Exploring the git branch Command

Embarking on your journey with Git involves mastering its fundamental commands, and among them, git branch stands out as a pivotal tool for managing branches. In this guide, we'll delve deep into the git branch command, exploring its various functionalities, from listing existing branches to creating and deleting them. By the end, you'll wield the power of branching with confidence, laying a solid foundation for your Git workflow.

Listing branches

To start, we can see all the branches we have on our local repository. Again, I'm using the Book Tracking repository.

git branch

  improve_highlight_cell
  library_screen
* main

Currently, I'm in the main branch, and we can see an asterisk on it. This command list only the local branches. If you need, you can list the remote branches with -r parameter.

git branch -r

  origin/main

You can also display all the branches, both local and remote, by using the -a parameter.

git branch -a

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  library_screen
* main
  remotes/origin/main

Now you know how to list the branches, let's create one.

Creating branches

Create a branch is easy. To show you, I'll use the name "a_new_branch" to create a new one.

git branch a_new_branch

Git won't show us anything, but we can use the git branch to list the branches.

git branch

  a_new_branch
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  library_screen
* main

Great! But this command only creates a branch but don't change the Git pointer (checkout). To this, we need to use the git switch to change between branches.

git switch a_new_branch

Switched to branch 'a_new_branch'

Now, if we visualize the branch list, the asterisk is on the branch we switch.

git branch

* a_new_branch
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  library_screen
  main

Suppose you created the branch and want to change its name. How to do this? Let's see.

Changing the branch name

Changing the branch name can be made with the -m parameter. I'm going to change the branch name to "dark_mode_support".

git branch -m dark_mode_support

If we check the branch list now, we can see the branch renamed.

git branch

* dark_mode_support
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  library_screen
  main

Very nice! But what can we do if we create a wrong branch and need to delete it?

Deleting a branch

To delete a branch, we need to checkout to another branch and execute the command with -D parameter to delete it.

git branch -D dark_mode_support

Deleted branch dark_mode_support (was 40650e2).

Pro-tips

To simplify the branch creation and change, we can use the git switch command with the -c parameter. This way the Git will create the new branch and immediately will make the checkout to it.

git switch -c name_of_your_branch

Switched to a new branch 'name_of_your_branch'

Another great tip is about changing branches. Suppose we are on the main branch and execute the git switch to checkout to another branch. Now we want to go back to the main branch again. We can type the git switch and specify the name of branch we need to go or simple type the - parameter to go to the previous branch.

git switch -

Switched to branch 'main'

This is very useful when we're doing this simple branch swaps.

We aren't done!

As you've seen, mastering the git branch command is a crucial step towards harnessing the full potential of Git's branching capabilities. Armed with this knowledge, you're now equipped to navigate branches with ease, laying the groundwork for more advanced branching strategies. In our next post, we'll elevate our understanding further as we explore comprehensive Git branching strategies, unveiling the diverse approaches teams use to manage project development effectively. Stay tuned for an in-depth exploration of Git's branching landscape!