CODEWITHSUNDEEP
gitgit-branch
cbdeveloper
cbdeveloper

Reputation: 31365

Creating a new file in a new Git branch

I'm still experimenting with Git.

Right now I have only a local master branch and a remote origin/master branch on Gitlab.

What I've been doing so far:

I wanted to create a new branch, so I did:

After this command I'm already "checked out" on my new branch, right? And I could confirm that with git branch -a

So I created a new file (using VSCode file explorer) example.txt (on my new branch).

And then I did:

So I could go back to my master branch.

And at that point I was expecting that I would no longer be able to see the file, since it was created using a different branch. But the file is still there.

What am I missing?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 13241

Answers (2)

Jeet Kumar
Jeet Kumar

Reputation: 547

Another Possible Solution:

You can use stash command of git.

What git stash do?

git stash is used to clipboard for your changes.

If you have to switch context - e.g. because you need to work on an urgent bug - you need to get these changes out of the way. You shouldn't just commit them, of course, because it's unfinished work.

Example:

git stash

Your working copy is now clean: all uncommitted local changes have been saved on this kind of "clipboard" that Git's Stash represents. You're ready to start your new task (for example by pulling changes from remote or simply switching branches).

Lets say:

  1. You created one file example.txt on branch newBranch.

  2. Now urgently you need to switch another branch master then before switch just apply following command.

    git add example.txt

    git stash

  3. Now when you switch master. Then example.txt file will disappear.

  4. When you go back your branch newBranch then apply following command.

    git stash apply

then you can see you file example.txt.

Upvotes: 0

Mark Adelsberger
Mark Adelsberger

Reputation: 45659

The file you created has not been staged or committed, so it is an untracked file. Untracked files do not yet belong to any branch(es); they exist on your working tree and remain there when you switch from branch to branch.

(To fully understand this, it may help to familiarize yourself with the three general storage areas in git - the worktree, the index (sometimes called staging area), and the database. Going into detail about that would kind of be out of scope for answering this question, but I do recommend reading up on this topic.)

There is a word of warning that goes with that: a file that is committed on one branch might not exist on another branch. For example, if you go back to newBranch and commit your file

git checkout newBranch
git add example.txt
git commit

now example.txt exists on newBranch but not on master. If you check out master, the file will go away as you expected.

That means that if, on master, you create another example.txt (in the same directory so that the path is exactly the same), this new file is untracked even though the same path refers to an existing, committed file on another branch.

If you then tried to checkout to newBranch git should refuse with a warning that you have data which would be lost by checking out.

Really this is just one special case of "trying to change branches with uncommitted changes", but it is worth being aware of given your current task.

Upvotes: 5

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