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Rewrite recommend git switch instead of git checkout #1524
Description
Which version of the book is affected?
This affects our mainline branch, when macOS and Debian stable include newer versions of Git that have the git switch command.
Describe the bug:
When stable platforms use newer versions of Git, we should not be using git checkout as the recommended way to do things, and instead promote git switch usage.
Steps to reproduce:
Just look through the book and note that we use git checkout instead of git switch.
Expected behavior:
What the rewrite should do:
- Get rid of the
[NOTE]that pull Create note forgit switch#1523 introduced. - Rewrite book to use
git switchinstead ofgit checkoutwhere possible. - Add
[NOTE]explaining thatgit checkoutis the "old way" of doing things.
Screenshots:
Additional context:
From @ben at #1515 (comment):
We can rewrite to recommend
switchfirst andcheckoutas a note when MacOS and (apparently) Debian stable have newer versions.
From @Paebbels:
When Git 2.27+ is bundled with most common distributions (e.g. Debian stable), the usage of
git checkoutcan be degraded to a foot note or so.
I copied/pasted @ben's words, so that we can keep track of this issue here, instead of on a issue (#1515) that will be closed when my pull is merged.
Activity
AlgaedAhmed commentedon Sep 22, 2020
[-]Rewrite recommend `git switch` instead of `git checkout`, when MacOS and Debian stable update their Git[/-][+]Rewrite recommend `git switch` instead of `git checkout`, when macOS and Debian stable update their Git[/+]HonkingGoose commentedon Feb 14, 2023
Looks like we're good to go for this issue now! See the discussion in this issue for more details about the current versions of Git:
git restoreinstead ofgit reset#1529[-]Rewrite recommend `git switch` instead of `git checkout`, when macOS and Debian stable update their Git[/-][+]Rewrite recommend `git switch` instead of `git checkout`[/+]das-g commentedon Oct 6, 2026
Where it's not possible,
git checkoutis probably being used to retrieve file contents of some revision (commit, staging area or stash) into the working copy without movingHEAD. If so, that can be done withgit restoreand thus could (and IMO should) probably be replaced by that.merge together changes favoring `switch` and `restore` over `checkout`
das-g commentedon Oct 11, 2026
What do you think of my draft at #2095?
merge together changes favoring `switch` and `restore` over `checkout`
merge together changes favoring `switch` and `restore` over `checkout`