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Git & Command Line Tutorial · Branching and Collaboration · Lesson 13 of 20

Branches

Work on features in isolation with branches: create, switch, list and delete them, and understand that a branch is just a movable pointer to a commit.

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What a branch is

A branch is a lightweight, movable label pointing at a commit. main is just a branch. When you commit, the current branch moves forward. HEAD means "where I am now".

Branches let you build a feature, fix a bug and try an experiment at the same time without them interfering.

Command Does
git branch List branches (* marks the current one)
git switch -c feature/login Create a branch and switch to it
git switch main Switch to an existing branch
git branch -d feature/login Delete a merged branch (-D forces)
git log --oneline --graph --all See all branches as a graph

Name branches by purpose: feature/checkout, fix/login-redirect, chore/upgrade-deps.

Creating, switching and visualising branches
git init -b main --quiet shop && cd shop
echo "home page" > index.html && git add . && git commit -m "Add home page" --quiet

git switch -c feature/cart --quiet
echo "cart page" > cart.html && git add . && git commit -m "Add cart page" --quiet

git switch main --quiet
echo "on main, cart.html exists? $(test -f cart.html && echo yes || echo no)"
echo "fix typo" >> index.html && git commit -am "Fix typo on home page" --quiet

git branch
git log --oneline --graph --all

Output

on main, cart.html exists? no
  feature/cart
* main
* 45d1f66 Add cart page
| * 3182aee Fix typo on home page
|/  
* 555b727 Add home page

Run this on your computer — see “Get Started” for setup.

Test yourself

What is a Git branch?

  1. A copy of all files
  2. A movable pointer to a commit
  3. A remote server
  4. A folder in .git with the code
Show answer

Answer: A movable pointer to a commit

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