git worktree notes

git worktree allows you to have multiple working directories associated with one git repo. It has been useful for me to look at, copy code between, and run two different branches of my code. I learned about git worktreee from James Ide's tweet:

Have you ever needed to pause & switch branches to fix an urgent bug or check out a release branch? This all goes away with "git worktree".

— James Ide (@JI) December 1, 2016

Initial setup

Move the checked out git repository to a /main subdirectory

$ mv /my-project /main 
$ mkdir /my-project 
$ mv /main /my-project 

Create a new working tree from an existing branch

$ cd /my-project/main 
$ git worktree add ../my-branch-working-dir my-branch 
$ cd ../my-branch-working-dir 

Create a new branch and new working tree

$ cd /my-project/main 
$ git worktree add -b my-new-branch ../my-new-branch-working-dir origin/master 
$ cd ../my-new-branch-working-dir 

Delete a working tree

$ cd /my-project 
$ rm -rf my-branch-working-dir 
$ git worktree prune 

fatal: my-branch is already checked out error

Deleting .git/worktrees/my-branch fixed the problem for me. See https://stackoverflow.com/q/33296185/101911

Reference / See also