From: Julia Evans Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2025 17:16:52 GMT Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 2/5] doc: git-checkout: clarify `git checkout ` Message-ID: <2b00569b-bdc9-43e1-8a59-540d13c41a7a@app.fastmail.com> In-Reply-To: > The condition to stop you is a bit stronger than that. > > By default, we would not even attempt to "merge into the branch" at > all. If your previous HEAD and the branch you are switching to are > different at a path you have local modifications in, then no changes > will be made and the checkout will fail. With "-m", we try to merge > and this merge can leave conflicts for you to sort out. Thanks, I wasn't sure based on the existing text what "modifications are kept" meant exactly, and I've always been slightly hazy about this behaviour. Will fix.