or the specified tree. If no paths are given, 'git checkout' will

also update `HEAD` to set the specified branch as the current

'git checkout' [<branch>]::

'git checkout' -b <new branch> [<start point>]::

This form switches branches by updating the index, working

tree, and HEAD to reflect the specified branch.

+

If `-b` is given, a new branch is created as if linkgit:git-branch[1]

were called and then checked out; in this case you can

use the `--track` or `--no-track` options, which will be passed to

'git branch'. As a convenience, `--track` without `-b` implies branch

creation; see the description of `--track` below.

'git checkout' [--patch] [<tree-ish>] [--] <pathspec>...::

When <paths> or `--patch` are given, 'git checkout' *not* switch

branches. It updates the named paths in the working tree from

the index file or from a named <tree-ish> (most often a commit). In

this case, the `-b` and `--track` options are meaningless and giving

either of them results in an error. The <tree-ish> argument can be

used to specify a specific tree-ish (i.e. commit, tag or tree)

to update the index for the given paths before updating the

working tree.

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The index may contain unmerged entries because of a previous failed merge.

By default, if you try to check out such an entry from the index, the

Using `-f` will ignore these unmerged entries. The contents from a

using `--ours` or `--theirs`. With `-m`, changes made to the working tree

file can be discarded to re-create the original conflicted merge result.