Branch management

Complete the branch create, switch and delete flow.

Branch management: create, switch, and delete

When working on a feature, you can create a new branch and continue development there. git switch switches between branches, while git switch -c creates a new branch and switches to it immediately. Once the work is complete and changes are merged, you can delete the unused branch.

git switch -c feature/search
# After development is complete
git switch main
git merge feature/search
git branch -d feature/search

Exercise Create and develop a feature branch

Create and switch to a branch named feature/notifications. Then stage the notification.js file and create a commit with the message feat: add notifications.

Show example solution

git switch -c feature/notifications
git add notification.js
git commit -m "feat: add notifications"

Exercise Merge branch changes and clean up

Feature development is complete. First switch to the main branch, then merge feature/notifications. Finally, safely delete the local feature branch.

Show example solution

git switch main
git merge feature/notifications
git branch -d feature/notifications

Test yourself

Git reports that a branch has not been merged when you try to delete it. What should you do for safe branch management?
- Reset the entire commit history
- Force-delete the branch
- Merge the branch changes first
- Remove the remote repository
Show answer

Merge the branch changes first — To avoid losing unmerged changes, merge the branch into the appropriate target branch first, then delete it with -d.

Create a branch and return to main

git switch -c feature/notifications
____git switch

Show answer

git switch -c feature/notifications
maingit switch

Branch management operations

git switch -c

Creates and switches to a branch
git switch main

Switches to the main branch
git branch -d

Safely deletes a local branch
git merge

Merges branch changes

Next lesson: Rebase

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