Can I create a new empty branch in git, which is not based on any other branch?

Question

How do I create a new branch which is not based on any other branch history? Basically an empty branch, with an empty working directory, not derived from any previous commits.

Answer 1

You can create so-called "orphan" branches that have a disconnected history with

git switch --orphan <branch-name>

or

git checkout --orphan <branch-name>

The difference between the two is that git switch will remove all the tracked files, whereas git checkout will not. In the latter case if you want to remove all the files from the index and the working tree, you will have to run git rm -rf .