Git

checkout vs. switch & restore

git checkout is able to create/switch branches, and restore files to previous revisions.

It is possible to have situations in a repo where there is a file and branch with the same name, where git checkout usage could lead to loss of local changes. Git (>2.24.0) now warns about this ambiguity, so safe to continue using.

• switch branches
  git checkout some-branch
• create new branch and switch to it
  git checkout -b new-branch
• restore files to previous state
  git checkout some-file.md

git switch & git restore were introduced in Git 2.23.0 to split the functionality of git checkout and avoid ambiguity.

• git switch some-branch
• git switch -c (--create) new-branch
• git restore some-file.md