Additionally, switch performs extra sanity checks that checkout doesn’t, for example switch would abort operation if it would lead to loss of local changes.
What checks? Under what situation does checkout lead to loss of changes? If I make changes and attempt to checkout a ref that would overwrite them, I get the following error:
error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by checkout:
some/file
Please commit your changes or stash them before you switch branches.
Aborting
To my knowledge it’s not possible to overwrite changes when switching branches/refs (git checkout <ref> without any other arguments or flags) so I guess what the author really means is, “If you use checkout incorrectly you can overwrite local changes.” As far as I can recall I’ve never accidentally git checkout <ref> <some/file> so I don’t see a reason to retrain my muscle memory. I do use git restore since it’s behavior is a lot more obvious than checkout/reset though sometimes I still use git checkout <ref> -- <some/file> because muscle memory.
What checks? Under what situation does checkout lead to loss of changes? If I make changes and attempt to checkout a ref that would overwrite them, I get the following error:
error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by checkout: some/file Please commit your changes or stash them before you switch branches. AbortingTo my knowledge it’s not possible to overwrite changes when switching branches/refs (
git checkout <ref>without any other arguments or flags) so I guess what the author really means is, “If you use checkout incorrectly you can overwrite local changes.” As far as I can recall I’ve never accidentallygit checkout <ref> <some/file>so I don’t see a reason to retrain my muscle memory. I do usegit restoresince it’s behavior is a lot more obvious than checkout/reset though sometimes I still usegit checkout <ref> -- <some/file>because muscle memory.