Where does git store the last checked out branch?

Question

When I do git checkout -, git checks out the last branch I had checked out. Where is that information stored?

This might be helpful: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7206801/is-there-any-way-to-git-checkout-previous-branch — Sergio Tulentsev, Sep 13 '16 at 08:53

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:08

4

It scans .git/logs/HEAD (the reflog for HEAD) for the last line looking like :

checkout: moving from <branchA> to <branchB>

the "last branch" is branchA

As said in the post linked by @SergioTulentsev :

git checkout - is a shorthand for git checkout @{-1}.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:08

Community

answered Sep 13 '16 at 09:35

LeGEC

1 Answers1