<branch> can be omitted in this syntax, and it's actually documented a few paragraphs down: You could omit <branch>, in which case the command degenerates to "check out the current branch", which is a glorified no-op with rather expensive side-effects to show only the tracking information, if exists, for the current branch. --- Documentation/git-checkout.txt | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/Documentation/git-checkout.txt b/Documentation/git-checkout.txt index 99c8c0dc0f..28817cfa41 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-checkout.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-checkout.txt @@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ or the specified tree. If no paths are given, 'git checkout' will also update `HEAD` to set the specified branch as the current branch. -'git checkout' <branch>:: +'git checkout' [<branch>]:: To prepare for working on <branch>, switch to it by updating the index and the files in the working tree, and by pointing HEAD at the branch. Local modifications to the files in the -- 2.21.0.rc1.337.gdf7f8d0522
