git branches are showing the same contents

Question

I am new to git and am learning to branch and merge.

When I perform the following operation:

git checkout -b test

a new branch is created, I am switched to that branch. When I:

vim testfile

and enter some text and save, testfile is created as expected. However when I then change to another branch via the following command:

git checkout master

or

git checkout unrelatedBranch

I find that the testfile also exists in these other branches with the same contents.

This behavior is inconsistent with my understanding of how branching works. Several internet resources have indicated that the commands I used here were what was needed.

Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong or why this is desired behavior?

Answer 1

Looks like the testfile is not under version control.

Try running git status first to see if it lists testfile under Untracked files.

Example:

git status
# On branch master
# Untracked files:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
#
#   testfile
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

If you see testfile listed under untracked files like in the above example, you need to add it to version control using the git add command.

git add testfile

Finally, do not forget to commit the change using git commit

Answer 2

testfile is untracked, and your change isn't committed.

As a result, testfile isn't on all branches. It's on no branches. Git doesn't know it's even there, so it can't clean it out of the working directory when it switches branches. This is helpful (if unexpected) behavior, because you'd hate to have git messing with untracked files.

Do:

git add testfile
git commit -m "Adding testfile to branch test"
git checkout master

and you'll see testfile go away.

Answer 3

It might be because the file is not being tracked.

Try doing: git add testfile to add it to the new branch.