CODEWITHSUNDEEP
gitbranch
Neofizz
Neofizz

Reputation: 53

Where am I? * (no branch)

I've been getting familiar with creating, merging and deleting branches. I like to know where I am so I don't commit work into the wrong branch. I use git branch -a to see which branches I have. I think the asterix * shows which branch I'm currently on. What does it mean when I get: 

* (no branch)
master
origin/HEAD

Because when I $git checkout mybranch I expect to see 

* mybranch
master
origin/HEAD

Upvotes: 5

Views: 2049

Answers (2)

VonC
VonC

Reputation: 1326782

The git checkout man page does mention, for the branch name argument:

<branch>

Branch to checkout;

  • if it refers to a branch (i.e., a name that, when prepended with "refs/heads/", is a valid ref), then that branch is checked out.
  • Otherwise, if it refers to a valid commit, your HEAD becomes "detached" and you are no longer on any branch.

So instead of having checked out a branch name, you must have checked out a tag name (valid commit), making your HEAD a detached one.

Upvotes: 4

Alex Budovski
Alex Budovski

Reputation: 18456

It doesn't look like you have a branch called mybranch. If you want to create a branch that points to the current head, use git branch foo.

If you want one that points to another ref, use git checkout -b newbranch <ref>

Upvotes: 1

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