What is the -b option for the checkout command?

Question

What is the difference between the git checkout devel and git checkout –b devel commands?

The first transition to the branch, the second to create and go to the devel branch

lexxl lexxl 5,051 2 13 35 · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-20T12:38:24

To create a branch and go straight to it, you can run the git checkout command with the -b :

 $ git checkout -b dev

This is an abbreviation for:

 $ git branch dev $ git checkout dev

More details can be found here: Branching in Git

aleksandr barakin aleksandr barakin 56.8k 13 48 172 · Answer 2 · 2016-04-20T12:57:21

The difference is that:

with the -b option, the checkout command will first try to create the specified branch ( git branch ветка ), and, if the branch already exists, will return an error:
fatal: A branch named 'branch' already exists.
without the -b option, there will be no preliminary attempt to create a branch, therefore, if such a branch does not exist yet, an error will be returned:
error: pathspec 'branch' did not match any file (s) known to git.

simple rule:

if the branch already exists, use it to switch to it
```
 $ git checkout ветка 
```
if the branch does not exist, use it to create and switch to it:
```
 $ git checkout -b ветка 
```

2 answers 2