Git: Work on multiple branches simultaneously

Say you are on a feature branch, and want to make a bug fix in master. Rather than stashing your changes, or clone-ing the entire repository, you can create a whole new working copy based on master as follows:

git fetch
git worktree add -b bugfix-1234 ../bugfix origin/master

The above sets up a new worktree at ../bugfix (assuming, and recommended that you are at the root of your original cloned repository). This new working tree is called a “linked working tree” as opposed to the “main working tree” prepared by “git init” or “git clone”. A repository has one main working tree (if it’s not a bare repository) and zero or more linked working trees.

The -b bugfix-1234 option creates a new branch, named bugfix-1234, based off master. If the -b option is not given, a new branch matching the directory of your worktree, bugfix, is created. You can now cd ../bugfix and work on this new worktree (and branch) as though it were a new clone of the repository. Your original clone and work is not interrupted.

Another possibility is to use a ‘detached branch’:

git worktree add --detach ../project-build HEAD
cd ../project-build
./run_build.sh

The above creates a worktree with a detached branch off the current HEAD. We can use this temporary worktree, and continue to make changes in our original worktree.

To remove worktrees, use rm -rf ../bugfix && git worktree prune when you are done with your new worktree. The git worktree prune is optional, and will remove metadata around your worktree from the repository immediately. If not used, the normal git garbage collection process will eventually clean it up.

Note that if you move a linked working tree, you need to manually update the administrative files so that they do not get pruned automatically.

If a linked working tree is stored on a portable device or network share which is not always mounted, you can prevent its administrative files from being pruned by issuing the git worktree lock command, optionally specifying --reason to explain why the working tree is locked.

Via StackToHeap.com and Git.