Branching

Branching is used to develop features isolated from others.

By default, git creates a master branch. This branch is considered the root and should ultimately contain all code changes.

The idea is that you want to create a new feature but you don't want to check directly into the master branch. Or let's say you are working on a prototype and not really sure if it's going to work out.

Creating a new branch

To create a new branch:

git branch MyNewBranch

To switch to that branch:

git checkout MyNewBranch

Or to create a new branch and switch to it:

git checkout -b MyNewBranch

Viewing branches

To see what branches are local and remotely:

git branch -a

Output:

* master
  remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
  remotes/origin/master

The * indicates the current branch. The remotes/origin/master is the remote copy of your local branch.

Deleting a local branch

To delete the branch locally:

git branch -d MyNewBranch

Deleting a remote branch

To delete the branch on the remote:

git push origin :MyNewBranch

Merging your branch

After you've completed your feature work, you'll want to merge your branch back into master.

NOTE: This is assuming all your changes are committed.

This gets any changes from any other team members working on your branch.
```
git pull
```
This assures that your remote branch has all of your local changes.
```
git push
```
This gets all changes from master.
```
git checkout master
```
```
git pull
```
```
git merge MyNewBranch
```

git branch -d MyNewBranch

git push origin :MyNewBranch

Branching

Branching

Creating a new branch

Viewing branches

Deleting a local branch

Deleting a remote branch

Merging your branch

Links

Exercises