is "git rebase ... [branch]" equivalent to first "git checkout [branch]"?

  i *think* i know the answer to this based on man page and reading
the code, but i just want to verify that i'm not missing any subtlety.

  according to "man git-rebase":

   git rebase [-i | --interactive] [<options>] [--exec <cmd>]
       [--onto <newbase>]
       [<upstream> [<branch>]]

and:

  "If <branch> is specified, git rebase will perform an automatic git
checkout <branch> before doing anything else. Otherwise it remains on
the current branch."

  is it *absolutely* equivalent to either specify the final "[branch]"
argument on "git rebase", or to just "git checkout branch" first
before running the rebase, then leaving off that final argument?

  everything i've seen suggests those two things are identical, but
i've been fooled before.

rday