Commit 5a79c03

layout: page

title: Branching and merging

I touched on just a few things about git. Get yourself going with git and

github and then start looking at some of the many

[resources](resources.html).

In particular, pay attention to: [Branching](http://git-scm.com/book/en/Git-Branching-Basic-Branching-and-Merging):

Create a separate _branch_ to develop a feature (or work on a

bug) without disturbing the _master_ branch. If it works out, you

can merge it back into the master; if it doesn't, you can trash it.

Branching is super easy, so for big projects, you should probably do it more

often than not.

To create a branch called `new_feature`:

$ git branch new_feature

Then “check it out”:

$ git checkout new_feature

Make various modifications, and then add and commit.

To go back to the master branch, check it out:

$ git checkout master

To push the branch to github, use this:

$ git push origin new_feature

If you make changes to the master branch, you'll want to merge them

into your exploratory one:

$ git checkout new_feature

$ git merge master

If you're satisfied with your changes in the exploratory branch, merge

them into the master:

$ git checkout master

$ git merge new_feature

If you're done with the branch and want to delete it:

$ git branch -d new_feature

But if you pushed it to github, it will still exist there. This is

how to delete the branch from github:

$ git push origin --delete new_feature

After pulling from github, use the following to get access to a branch

that is only on github:

$ git checkout -b new_feature origin/new_feature

If you want to pull a particular branch from a collaborator's

repository, do this:

$ git checkout new_feature

$ git pull myfriend new_feature

One final point: note that

is really doing a

followed by a

[`git merge`](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-merge.html).