Question

I am working on a git repository with a master branch and another the topic branch. I have switched to topic branch and modified a file. Now, if I switched to the master branch, that same file is shown as modified.

For example:

git status in git-build branch:

# On branch git-build # Changes to be committed: #   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage) # #       modified:   cvsup_current # 

Switch to master branch

[root@redbull builder_scripts (git-build)]# git co master M       builder_scripts/cvsup_current Switched to branch "master" 

git status in master branch

[root@redbull builder_scripts (master)]# git status # On branch master # Changes to be committed: #   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage) # #       modified:   cvsup_current # 

Why is that the file is shown as modified in the master branch even though it was modified in git-build branch?

My understanding was that the branches are independent of each other and when I change from one branch to another the changes do not "spill over" from one branch to another. So I am obviously missing something here.

Has anyone got a clue stick?

Answer 1

This is the default behaviour of git.

You can use -f flag to checkout to do ‘clean checkout’ if you like.