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If I do "git branch -a" in my terminal, does a branch of a branch (so a branch I made off of another branch) look different from a branch off of origin? For example, if I have a branchB off of branchA, should the branch look like: origin/branchA/branchB?

dimestorecoffee
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  • git branch will just print out your local branches. git branch -a will print out local branches and remote branches. Not sure what you're trying to accomplish here. – doct03 Apr 19 '20 at 15:58
  • that's what I wanted to do: look at all my branches. My question had nothing to do with the command or what it does. – dimestorecoffee Apr 20 '20 at 18:02
  • Sorry about that. I misread your question. – doct03 Apr 21 '20 at 03:19

2 Answers2

2

No.

Unless you name it that, anyway. All that is displayed is the branch's name, which can be anything you want.

hobbs
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2

The reasons branchB does not appear as branchA/branchB are:

  • that would imply some kind of strong coupling between branchA and branchB, which makes no sense considering:

    • branchA can be deleted at any time (that won't delete the commits it referenced): branchB would still be there, unchanged
    • branchB can be rebased at any time on top of any other branch
    • branchB has no knowledge of any other branch it is "based" upon: it only references a commit (and all commits reachable from its HEAD)

  • a slash is allowed in a branch name: you can name it xxx/yyy (as one branch): this is for defining a hierarchy in a branch naming convention.
    Typical examples:

    • Gerrit branches for review: refs/for/REL1_20/bug/36151: the for/REL1_20/bug/36151 is one (Gerrit) branch.
    • GitHub Pull Request branches: git fetch origin pull/ID/head:BRANCHNAME: pull/ID is one (PR) branch
VonC
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