In the current era, most software development companies work in a where several developers contribute to the same source code. While some will be fixing bugs the others would be implementing new and different features. The problem raises, how to maintain different versions of the same code base? collaborative environment This is where the shines! Branch allows each developer to his/her work from others by creating a new branch from the original code base. branch function isolate What Is a Branch? Branch is an independent line of development. It works as a to your next commits. Whenever a is created, Git creates a new pointer while keeping the original code base untouched. pointer new branch When you make your in a repository, Git will automatically create a by default. Every next commit you make will go to the master branch until you decide to create and switch over to another branch. first commit master branch Creating Branches Let's start with : ` `. creating a new branch git branch hello-world This only creates the . To start working on it, you will need to switch to the branch with ` `. Now, you are ready to use standard ` ` and ` ` commands. new branch git checkout git add git commit You can see two different branches pointing to the same commit. How does Git know which branch is currently checked out? This is where the comes into play! HEAD pointer always points to the currently checked out branch or commit. In our case, it is the master. Let's ` ` and see what happens. HEAD git checkout hello-world As you can see, the HEAD is now pointing to the ` ` branch instead of master. The next step is to modify some files and with ` ` hello-world create a new commit git commit -m "commit message" A was created in the branch `hello-world`. Pointers always move to the latest commit in that branch that we checked out. Changes in the `hello-world` branch did not affect any other branch. Branching enables you to isolate your work from others. new commit C5 It is a common practice to create a new branch for (e.g. bug fixing, new features etc), which is a good practice because it allows others to easily identify what to expect, and also for backtracking purposes to understand why a particular code change is implemented. You can read more at . each task changes Git Beginner's Guide for Dummies Create your own project and try it out! Make on a different branch and commit the changes. Ruby on Rails Rspec tests Detached HEAD As we have said before, HEAD always points to the currently checked out branch or commit. to a commit and see what happens with ` `. Checkout git checkout C0 Now, the HEAD is pointing to C0. We are currently checkedout to a remote branch. Is it possible to create a new commit while checkout to one? Time to find it out! ` ` git commit -m "commit message" The HEAD is detached and moves together with each new commit created. The newly created commit `C6` is pointing to `C0`, that is now acting like a branch, but it is not. that are not reachable by any branch or tag will be garbage collected and removed from the repository after 30 days. Commits To avoid this, we simply need to create a new branch for the newly created commit and checkout to it. ` `. git checkout -b hotfix C6 Always use branches when you are solving new problems to avoid disturbing your co-worker's features! Previously published at https://kolosek.com/git-branches/
