Thanks, Johannes, for this explanation. I actually had to prod him on IRC a bit more until I understood, but the result is now available on my blog: http://blog.madduck.net/vcs/2007.07.11_creating-a-git-branch-without-ancestry [...] Update: Johannes Schindelin taught me how to do the same without touching files in .git/: $ git symbolic-ref HEAD refs/heads/newbranch [...] and also addressed the issue which would have all files already committed to the "master" branch now appear in the git status output as staged. This is because the index contains the full copy of a revision of a file, as it would be if committed at any point. git status shows the differences between what has been committed, what would be committed, and what is available in the working tree. Since we pointed HEAD to nowhere ("newbranch" does not yet exist), the index and what has been committed (nothing in this case) diverge, the files are still staged, and thus are scheduled to be part of the impending commit. The way to fix this is to remove the index: $ rm .git/index This may seem weird, but it works, because git recreates the index whenever you switch branches: piper:~> git init-db Initialized empty Git repository in .git/ piper:~> echo 1 > a; git add a; git commit -m. Created initial commit e774324: . 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) create mode 100644 a piper:~> git symbolic-ref HEAD refs/heads/newbranch piper:~> rm .git/index piper:~> git status # On branch newbranch # # Initial commit # # Untracked files: # (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed) # # a nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track) piper:~> echo 2 > b; git add b; git commit -m. Created initial commit 54ff342: . 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) create mode 100644 b piper:~> git branch master * newbranch piper:~> git checkout master fatal: Untracked working tree file 'a' would be overwritten by merge. piper:~> git checkout -f master Switched to branch "master" piper:~> git status # On branch master nothing to commit (working directory clean) piper:~> ls a piper:~> git checkout newbranch Switched to branch "newbranch" piper:~> git status # On branch newbranch nothing to commit (working directory clean) piper:~> ls b As you can see, the creation of the branch is a bit complex, but once you (forcefully) switched back to master, you can then freely switch between and commit to them. -- martin; (greetings from the heart of the sun.) \____ echo mailto: !#^."<*>"|tr "<*> mailto:"; net@madduck spamtraps: madduck.bogus@xxxxxxxxxxx "when women love us, they forgive us everything, even our crimes; when they do not love us, they give us credit for nothing, not even our virtues." -- honoré de balzac
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