CODEWITHSUNDEEP
git
josh
josh

Reputation: 135

How do I delete a local branch and go back to master?

I created a new branch using git checkout -b new_branch_name.

I haven't run git add or git commit yet.
I want to get rid of this branch completely, including any new files, and switch back to master. How do I do this?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 6297

Answers (2)

8bittree
8bittree

Reputation: 1799

A branch is just a pointer to a commit:

$ cat .git/refs/heads/master
6eef8fb523469b12abc530cd105c7b92a4a0a76a

So, when you delete a branch with git branch -D branch_name, it just deletes the file branch_name in .git/refs/heads, it doesn't touch the working tree (i.e. the actual c or java or python or whatever files you're using git to track).

To clean up any untracked files after deleting your branch, just use:

git clean -df

The -d flag will also remove untracked directories. The -f flag forces the clean in case the config option clean.requireForce is set to true. You can add the -i flag if you want to review the work interactively.

If you have any tracked files with changes after deleting your branch, you can reset those with:

git reset --hard

Upvotes: 2

tambre
tambre

Reputation: 4853

Use the following to switch back to master:

git checkout master

Use the following to delete the branch you created:

git branch -D new_branch_name

Upvotes: 9

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