Git Branches

Note

This section is only relevant for future developers to the CSC-ATAMO Dusty project.

Making a New Branch

To make a new branch

$ git checkout -b [branchName]

Navigating Branches

Note that sometimes git will not let you move between branches if you have uncommitted changes in your current branch.

Now the question is, where do you want these changes to be committed to?

• Commit them to old branch?
• Commit them to the new branch?

In both cases you first have to stash your uncommitted changes;

$ git stash save

This command saves all current untracked changes, but to no branch at all (just some random storage space in git), and then remove them

To recover these changes use the command

$ git stash apply

Example Workflow

An example workflow is shown below, here we are using the testing machine and a different developer (dev2) wishes to checkout their branch for testing whilst not affecting the current branch of the current developer (dev1)

$ git status         # Check the current working tree
On branch dev1
Your branch is ahead of 'origin/dev1' by 1 commit.
  (use "git push" to publish your local commits)
Changes not staged for commit:
  (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
  (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)

        modified:   src/tester/example_file.c

$ git stash save     # Save the current changes in the working tree to stash
Saved working directory and index state WIP on dev1: 22cbc57 Prev commit (example)
HEAD is now at 22cbc57 Prev commit (example)

$ git checkout dev2  # checkout the branch
Switched to branch 'dev2'
Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/dev2'.

$ git pull           # Get any updates

#... build and test as required

# >>>> CHOOSE ONE OF TWO ----------------------------------------------------

# OPTION A
$ git reset --hard   # If you want to get rid of any changes made during testing

# OPTION B
$ git add .          # If you want to save changes made during testing
$ git commit

# >>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------

$ git checkout dev1  # checkout the previous branch
Switched to branch 'dev1'
Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/dev1'.

$ git stash dev1     # Re-apply the changes to the branch
On branch dev1
Your branch is ahead of 'origin/dev1' by 1 commit.
  (use "git push" to publish your local commits)
Changes not staged for commit:
  (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
  (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)

        modified:   src/tester/example_file.c

no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")