What is the purpose of branches in Git?

Branches in Git serve primarily to keep multiple streams of work independent. This allows developers to work on different features, bug fixes, or experiments without interfering with each other's progress or the main project. By using branches, teams can manage their changes in an organized way, ensuring that each stream of work can be developed, tested, and reviewed separately before being merged into the main codebase.

The concept of branching enables a safer development process where experimentation does not affect the stability of the main project. Once the work on a branch is complete and tested, it can be merged back into the main branch, keeping the integration of features streamlined and manageable.

The other options describe functions that are not accurately representative of what Git branches do. For example, consolidating all changes into one file is not how branching is designed to operate; instead, it allows for multiple versions of files to coexist independently until they are merged. Similarly, branches do not prevent code sharing; on the contrary, they facilitate sharing changes in a controlled manner. Lastly, while branches can be seen as a way to preserve changes, they are not primarily intended as a backup system, as Git provides other mechanisms for version control and data recovery.