Manage Git branches | IntelliJ IDEA (2023)

Create a new branch from current branch

1. In the Branches popup, choose New Branch or right-click the current branch in the Branches pane of the Git tool window and choose New Branch from 'branch name'.

2. In the dialog that opens, specify the branch name, and make sure the Checkout branch option is selected if you want to switch to that branch.

   Once you start typing a name for your new branch, IntelliJIDEA will suggest relevant prefixes based on the names of existing local branches.

   The new branch will start from the current branch HEAD.

Create a new branch from selected branch

1. In the Branches popup or in the Branches pane of the Git tool window select a local or a remote branch that you want to start a new branch from and choose New Branch from Selected.

2. In the dialog that opens, specify the branch name, and make sure the Checkout branch option is selected if you want to switch to that branch.

Create a new branch from selected commit

1. In the Log view, select the commit that you want to act as a starting point for the new branch and choose New Branch from the context menu.

2. In the dialog that opens, specify the branch name, and make sure the Checkout branch option is selected if you want to switch to that branch.

1. In the Branches popup or in the Branches pane of the Git tool window, select the branch you want to rename and choose Rename.

2. In the dialog that opens, change the branch name to the one you need.

If you have many branches, you may want to see only your favorite ones. The main branch is marked as a favorite by default. Favorite branches are always displayed at the top of the Branches popup and in the Branches pane of the Git tool window.

• To mark a branch as a favorite, in the Branches popup, hover the mouse cursor over the branch name, and click the star outline that appears on the left:

  

  Alternatively, select the branch you want to mark as favourite and press Space.

  You can also select a branch in the Branches pane of the Git tool window and click on the toolbar.

Check out a branch as a new local branch

1. In the Branches popup or in the Branches pane of the Git tool window, select a branch that you want to check out locally from Remote Branches, or Common Remote Branches if your project has several roots and synchronous branch control is enabled, or from Repositories | Remote Branches if it is disabled.

2. Choose Checkout from the list of actions.

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А new local branch will be created, checked out and set to track the origin remote branch.

It can happen that you already have a local branch with the same name as a remote branch you want to check out. Depending on the situation, here is how you can finish the checkout process:

• If no commits will be lost, and the local branch already tracks the remote, IntelliJIDEA automatically resets the local branch to the remote branch and then checks it out.

• If the local branch contains commits that can be lost because of the reset, IntelliJIDEA will offer you to:

  • Drop Local Commits: IntelliJIDEA will drop your local commits, reset the local branch, and change tracking.

  • Rebase onto Remote: IntelliJIDEA will rebase your local branch onto the remote branch, keep your local commits, reset the local branch, and change tracking.

Switch between branches

When multitasking, you often need to jump between branches to commit unrelated changes.

1. In the Branches popup or in the Branches pane of the Git tool window, select the branch that you want to switch to under Local Branches and choose Checkout from the list of available operations.

   For multi-repository projects, branches are automatically grouped by repositories. To check out the neccesary branch, in the Branches popup, choose the repository first.

2. What happens next depends on whether there are conflicts between your local changes that you have not committed yet, and the branch that you are going to check out:

   • If your working tree is clean (that means you have no uncommitted changes), or your local changes do not conflict with the specified branch, this branch will be checked out (a notification will pop up in the bottom-right corner of the IntelliJIDEA window).

   • If your local changes are going to be overwritten by checkout, IntelliJIDEA displays a list of files that prevent you from checking out the selected branch, and suggests choosing between Force Checkout and Smart Checkout.

     If you click Force Checkout, your local uncommitted changes will be overwritten, and you will lose them.

     If you click Smart Checkout, IntelliJIDEA will shelve uncommitted changes, check out the selected branch, and then unshelve the changes. If a conflict occurs during the unshelve operation, you will be prompted to merge the changes. For details, see Resolve conflicts.

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Compare a branch with the current branch

If you want to check how a branch has diverged from the current branch, you can compare them.

1. From the Branches popup or from the Branches pane of the Git tool window, select the branch that you want to compare with the current branch, and choose Compare with Current.

   A new tab will be added to the Git tool window listing all commits that exist in the selected branch and do not exist in the current branch.

   You can click the Swap Branches link to change which branch is considered as a base against which you are comparing the other branch.

2. To see a list of all files that are different in the two branches, click Control+A: the Changed Files pane will list all files that contain differences.

Compare a branch with the working tree

Apart from comparing a branch with the current branch, you can compare it against the local state of the current branch. This is useful if you have local uncommitted changes.

• From the Branches popup or from the Branches pane of the Git tool window, select the branch that you want to compare with the local working tree, and choose Show Diff with Working Tree.

  The Changes tool window that opens shows a list of all files that are different in the selected branch compared with the branch that is currently checked out:

  

  • Files that exist in the selected branch and are missing in the current branch are marked with grey.

  • Files that exist in the current branch but are missing in the selected branch are marked with green.

  • Files that contain differences between the selected and the current branch are marked with blue.

  You can click the Swap Branches link to change which branch is considered as a base against which you are comparing the other branch.

  • To review the differences within a specific file, select it and click on the toolbar, or press Control+D.

  • To apply the entire file contents to the current branch, click (see Apply separate files for details).

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After you have integrated the changes from a feature branch into the main line of development, you can delete the branch you do not need anymore.

1. Check out a branch that you are going to use for further work.

2. In the Branches popup or from the Branches pane of the Git tool window, right-click the branch you want to delete and choose Delete.

After you have deleted a branch, a notification will be displayed in the bottom-right corner from which you can restore the deleted branch:

If the branch contained commits that have not yet been merged to its upstream branch or to the current branch, it will still be deleted immediately (equivalent to the git branch --D or git branch --delete --force command), but the notification will also contain a link allowing you to view the unmerged commits.

If the deleted branch was tracking a remote branch, there will also be a link in this notification to remove the remote branch.

If you have a multi-rooted repository, you can configure IntelliJIDEA to perform all branch operations (such as checkout, merge, delete, and so on) simultaneously on all roots as if it were a single repository.

1. Press Control+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and then select Version Control | Git.

2. Select the Execute branch operations on all roots option (note that this option is only available if your project has multiple roots).

If an operation fails at least in one of the repositories, IntelliJIDEA prevents branches from diverging by suggesting you to roll back this operation in the repositories where it was successful.