How to create a branch without adding all the existing files?

Question

When I create branch in git, all the created files are added to the new branch.

How can I create a branch without adding all the existing files?

If you are looking for a completely independent branch (no shared history and no common files), then this question is a duplicate of [“In git, is there a simple way of introducing an unrelated branch to a repository?”](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1384325/in-git-is-there-a-simple-way-of-introducing-an-unrelated-branch-to-a-repository). — Chris Johnsen, Feb 23 '11 at 05:05

score 84 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 23 '11 at 04:10

84

git checkout --orphan branchname
git rm -rf .

After doing that you can create, add, and commit new files and the resulting branch will have no common history with any other branches in your project (unless you merge them at some point).

answered Feb 23 '11 at 04:10

Arrowmaster

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@XuqiciAcerto Because it has no parents. – Arrowmaster Mar 06 '13 at 18:35
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Why do you need to do `git rm -rf` on an orphan branch? The `git log` is showing nothing anyway (`fatal: bad default revision 'HEAD'` to be precise). – Peter-Jan Celis Sep 25 '13 at 12:43
The fact that this is a `checkout` option instead of a `branch` option is frustrating. – Flimm Oct 07 '13 at 15:42
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After creating an orphan branch, is it possible to create pull request to that branch? It seems bitbucket show unrelated branch, so you can't create a pull request :( – Samar Panda Apr 10 '17 at 01:25
@SamarPanda Did you found any solution to create pull-request from such a branch ? – coding_idiot Aug 16 '18 at 17:34

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 03 '14 at 08:51

The current answers are correct, you'd need an orphaned branch, but I would just add that coincidentally...

This is actually exactly how github.com lets users create Github Pages for their repos, thru an orphaned branch called gh-pages. The pretty steps are given and explained here:

https://help.github.com/articles/creating-project-pages-manually

Hope this helps!

Guillermo Garza · Answer 3 · 2011-02-23T05:27:57.400

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From the Git Book

git symbolic-ref HEAD refs/heads/newbranch 
rm .git/index 
git clean -fdx 
<do work> 
git add your files 
git commit -m 'Initial commit'

edited Feb 23 '11 at 05:27

answered Feb 23 '11 at 04:00

Guillermo Garza

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Or did you want an orphan branch? In that case, see the answer by Arrowmaster. Though, the "--orphan" option was only added in 1.7.2. – Guillermo Garza Feb 25 '11 at 00:17

How to create a branch without adding all the existing files?

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