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copied!<p>The special "option" <code>--</code> means "treat every argument after this point as a file name, no matter what it looks like." This is not Git-specific, it's a general Unix command line convention. Normally you use it to clarify that an argument is a file name rather than an <em>option</em>, e.g.</p> <pre><code>rm -f # does nothing rm -- -f # deletes a file named "-f" </code></pre> <p><code>git checkout</code><sup>1</sup> also takes <code>--</code> to mean that subsequent arguments are not its optional "treeish" parameter specifying which commit you want.</p> <p>So in this context it's <em>safe</em> to use <code>--</code> always, but you <em>need</em> it when the file you want to revert has a name that begins with <code>-</code>, or is the same as the name of a branch. Some examples for branch/file disambiguation:</p> <pre><code>git checkout README # would normally discard uncommitted changes # to the _file_ "README" git checkout master # would normally switch the working copy to # the _branch_ "master" git checkout -- master # discard uncommitted changes to the _file_ "master" </code></pre> <p>and option/file disambiguation:</p> <pre><code>git checkout -p -- README # interactively discard uncommitted changes # to the file "README" git checkout -- -p README # unconditionally discard all uncommitted # changes to the files "-p" and "README" </code></pre> <p>I'm not sure what you do if you have a <em>branch</em> whose name begins with <code>-</code>. Perhaps don't do that in the first place.</p> <hr> <p><sup>1</sup> in this mode; "checkout" can do several other things as well. I have never understood why git chose to implement "discard uncommitted changes" as a mode of the "checkout" subcommand, rather than "revert" like most other VCSes, or "reset" which I think might make more sense in git's own terms.</p>

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