Yeswanth Madasu

Day 07/13 of Git 101 Series

Branches as Pointers

Concept Explanation

A Git branch is simply a pointer to a specific commit.
No file copies. No extra directory. No magic duplication.

When you create a new commit, the branch pointer moves forward to that commit.

HEAD is a symbolic reference telling Git which branch you're currently on.

If HEAD points to refs/heads/main, your commits will advance main.
If it points to refs/heads/feature-x, your commits advance feature-x.

Commands

List branches

git branch

Create a branch

git branch feature-login

Switch to a branch

git switch feature-login

Create and switch in one go

git switch -c feature-login

Delete a branch

git branch -d feature-login

Older alternative

git checkout feature-login

Example

You are on main and want isolated work:

git switch -c login-ui

Make changes and commit:

git add .
git commit -m "add login ui"

Now the login-ui pointer moves forward while main stays at its previous commit.

Merge when you're done:

git switch main
git merge login-ui

Clean up:

git branch -d login-ui

Real-World Use Case

Teams often work on multiple features at the same time.
Each feature, bug fix, or experiment gets its own branch to avoid breaking main.

Common structure:

Branches isolate work, reduce conflicts, and let developers test changes safely.

Under-the-Hood Explanation

Branches are stored as simple text files inside .git/refs/heads/.

Examples:

.git/refs/heads/main
.git/refs/heads/login-ui

Each file contains exactly one thing: a commit hash.

Example content:

a97b23c98e1f94af1df8a908d50ae1f7203d36f1

HEAD lives at:

.git/HEAD

Typical content:

ref: refs/heads/main

This means HEAD points to the branch, not directly to a commit.

When you commit, Git:

  1. Creates a new commit object
  2. Rewrites the branch file with the new commit hash
  3. HEAD follows automatically because it references the branch

No file duplication. No directory cloning.
Just lightweight pointers walking through the commit graph.