SYNOPSIS

cg-switch [-f] [-l | -n | -p] [-o REMBRANCH] [-c | -r COMMIT_ID] BRANCH

DESCRIPTION

cg-switch(1) can switch your current local branch (and working copy) to an existing branch, or create a new branch based on a given commit.

Terminology note: This command concerns local branches (also called "heads"), not remote branches (those managed by cg-branch-add(1)).

Note that cg-switch(1) is meant for permanent switching of your current local branch (permanent in the sense that you are going to work on it; you can obviously cg-switch(1) again later). If you want to just casually explore the current state of a particular branch of commit, use cg-seek(1).

OPTIONS

-c

Create a new branch of given name, based on your current commit (HEAD). This option is equivalent to specifying -r HEAD. If -f is passed and the branch already exists, it is forcibly repointed to point to the current commit.

-f

Force the branch's head pointer to be updated to whatever you passed as the -r argument even if the branch already exists. WARNING: The pointer to the original contents of the branch will be lost! The contents itself will not be deleted right away, git-fsck-objects --unreachable might help you to find it. Besides, this can get very troublesome if you are pushing the branch out - please refer to the documentation of a close relative, cg-admin-uncommit(1).

-l

If your working tree has uncommitted local changes, the default behaviour is that the changes will be reapplied to the new branch after switching. With this option, however, the local changes will be "kept" with your previous branch, you will get a pristine tree of the new branch and when you switch back to the original branch you will also get back the local changes. (You do not need to pass any special switches when switching back, -l has effect only on the branch you are switching _away_ from.)

-n

Do not switch your current branch to the given branch. This will make cg-switch to only create or update the branch, but leave your working copy alone.

-o REMBRANCH

Along switching the branches, this will also set the default remote branch to be associated with the target branch (used as default by e.g. cg-update(1) and cg-push(1), falls back to origin). You may want to combine this with -n to change this for a branch other than the current one without actual switching. As a special present just for you, in case of -o the BRANCH cg-switch(1) argument defaults to the current branch.

This setting is saved in Git configuration file under the key branch.<name>.merge and is understood by core Git as well.

-p

Do not touch the working copy when switching. This _will_ switch your current branch, but the checked out working copy will have the original contents kept (so further cg-diff(1) will list a lot of changes, relative to the new branch).

-r COMMIT_ID

Point the branch at the given commit. Required when creating a new branch. When switching to an existing branch, the branch pointer is modified if -r is passed and confirmed by -f.

-h, --help

Print usage summary.

--long-help

Print user manual. The same as found in cg-switch(1).

--version

Print Cogito version.

EXAMPLE USAGE

To create a "v1.x" branch based on the commit "v1.0" and switch the working copy to it, making it your current branch, do:

$ cg-switch -r v1.0 v1.x

If you want to create the branch (let's say based on the current commit) but don't switch your working copy to it (so that your current branch stays the same as before), do:

$ cg-switch -n -c v1.x

If you want to go back to the master branch, just do:

$ cg-switch master

To change the "v1.x" branch to refer to the latest commit on the "testing" branch, do (WARNING: you will lose the pointer to the original contents of the "v1.x" branch, be careful!):

$ cg-switch -f -r testing v1.x

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © Yann Dirson, Petr Baudis 2005

SEE ALSO

cg-switch is part of cogito(7), a toolkit for managing git(7) trees.