Creating a New Branch and Switching to It and back¶

Creating a new branch in GitHub and switching your local folder to it (and back) involves a few steps using Git commands. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

Creating a New Branch and Switching to It¶

Open your terminal or command prompt.
Navigate to your local repository:
```
cd path/to/your/repository
```
Ensure your local repository is up to date:
```
git fetch origin
```
This fetches updates from the remote repository.
Create a new branch and switch to it:
```
git checkout -b new-branch-name
```
This command creates a new branch called new-branch-name and switches to it immediately.
Push the new branch to the remote repository:
```
git push -u origin new-branch-name
```
This pushes your new branch to GitHub and sets up tracking so that future git push commands will know which remote branch to push to.

Switching Back to the Main Branch¶

Ensure your main branch is up to date:
```
git fetch origin
```
This fetches updates from the remote repository.
Switch to the main branch:
```
git checkout main
```
Replace main with master if your repository uses master as the main branch name.
Pull the latest changes from the remote repository:
```
git pull origin main
```
Again, replace main with master if necessary. This ensures your local main branch is up to date with the remote repository.

Example Workflow¶

Here’s how the entire workflow might look:

Navigate to your local repository:
```
cd path/to/your/repository
```
Fetch updates from the remote repository:
```
git fetch origin
```
Create a new branch and switch to it:
```
git checkout -b new-feature-branch
```

Make your changes and commit them:

git add .
git commit -m "Description of your changes"

Push the new branch to the remote repository:
```
git push -u origin new-feature-branch
```
Switch back to the main branch:
```
git checkout main
```
Pull the latest changes from the remote main branch:
```
git pull origin main
```

By following these steps, you can effectively create new branches, switch between branches, and keep your local repository synchronized with the remote repository on GitHub.