> Someone who is not well versed in git arcana will be surprised that the level of risk associated with 'git checkout [branch]' is radically different from 'git

> Someone who is not well versed in git arcana will be surprised that the level of risk associated with 'git checkout [branch]' is radically different from 'git checkout [directory]'. I disagree that it's a difference in the level of risk. There's no "risk" that git checkout [path] will discard your uncommitted changes, it's a promise and a certainty. That said, I agree that the breadth of largely unrelated functionality smushed into git checkout is surprising, but it's also one of the few things about Git's user interface that actually has been addressed by new subcommands.