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Linked Worktrees

We've talked about:

  1. Stash (temporary storage for changes)

  2. Branches (parallel lines of development)

  3. Clone (copying an entire repo)

Worktrees accomplish a similar goal (allow you to work on different changes without losing work), but are particularly useful when:

  1. You want to switch back and forth between the two change sets without having to run a bunch of git commands (not branches or stash)

  2. You want to keep a light footprint on your machine that's still connected to the main repo (not clone)

The Main Worktree

  • Contains the .git directory with the entire state of the repo

  • Heavy (lots of data in there!). To get a new main working tree requires a git clone or git init

A Linked Worktree

  • Contains a .git file with a path to the main working tree

  • Light (essentially no data in there!), about as light as a branch

  • Can be complicated to work with when it comes to env files and secrets

Create a Linked Worktree

To create a new worktree at a given path:

git worktree add <path> [<branch>]

Adding <branch> is optional. It will use the last part of the path as the branch name.

Assignment

Run and submit the CLI tests from the root of the main working tree (megacorp).