From: i o <lvsil4@outlook.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2023 11:41:47 GMT
Subject: Proposal: adding --soft and --mixed options to git checkout
Message-ID: <PA4PR09MB65161C38AEFBC07B3D7A1C62B0679@PA4PR09MB6516.eurprd09.prod.outlook.com>

I suggest adding `--soft` and `--mixed` options to `git checkout`, that act similarly to the corresponding options of `git reset`, i.e. `git checkout --soft <tree-ish>` should move the HEAD to <tree-ish> without affecting the working tree or index, and `git checkout --mixed <tree-ish>` should move the HEAD to <tree-ish> and update the index to match it without changing the working tree.

The difference between this and `git reset` of course would be that, unlike the latter, this doesn't 'drag' the current branch along with HEAD; instead the usual behaviour would apply depending on what exactly <tree-ish> is, i.e. `git checkout [--soft|--mixed] <commit>` would detach HEAD and point it to <commit>, whereas `git checkout [--soft|--mixed] <branch>` would move HEAD and switch from the current branch to <branch>.

I'm aware work arounds exist for these, something like:

    ```
    git checkout --detach
    git reset [--soft|--mixed] [<branch>|<commit>]
    git checkout [<branch>|<commit>]
    ```

so the aim here is really one of convenience by having this feature contained in a native option.

Another option that might be worth adding to `git checkout` is `--keep-index` (like the option in `git stash`), to move the HEAD to <tree-ish> and update the working tree to match it without changing the index.