Renaming a branch in GitHub

Question

I just renamed my local branch using  git branch -m oldname newname   but this only renames the local version of the branch  How can I rename the one on  GitHub

User · Answer

Another way is to rename the following files   Navigate your project directory  Rename  git refs head  branch-name  to  git refs head new-branch-name  Rename  git refs remotes  all-remote-names   branch-name  to  git refs remotes  all-remote-names  new-branch-name   Rename head and remotes both on your local PC and on origins s  remote server s   Branch is now renamed  local and remote    Attention If your current branch-name contains slashes     Git will create the directories like so  current branch-name   quot awe some branch quot    git refs head awe some branch  git refs remotes  all-remote-names  awe some branch  wish branch-name   quot new-branch-name quot   Navigate your project directory  Copy the branch file from  git refs   awe some   Put it in  git refs head   Copy the branch file from all of  git refs remotes   awe some   Put them in  git refs remotes     Rename all copied branch files to new-branch-name  Check if the directory and file structure now looks like this     git refs head new-branch-name  git refs remotes  all-remote-names  new-branch-name   Do the same on all your remote origins servers  if they exist    Info  on remote-servers there are usually no refs remotes   directories because you re already on remote-server     Well  maybe in advanced Git configurations it might be possible  but I have never seen that   Branch is now renamed from awe some branch to new-branch-name  local and remote   Directories in branch-name got removed   Information  This way might not be the best  but it still works for people who might have problems with the other ways

User · Answer

Download Atlassian Sourcetree  free   Import your local clone of the repository  Right click your branch to rename  in the sidebar  Select  quot Rename branch    quot  from context menu  and rename it  Push to origin

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I ve found three commands on how you can change your Git branch name  and these commands are a faster way to do that  git branch -m old branch new branch           Rename branch locally git push origin  old branch                   Delete the old branch git push --set-upstream origin new branch     Push the new branch  set local branch to track the new remote  If you need step-by-step you can read this great article  How to Rename Git Local and Remote Branches

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As mentioned  delete the old one on GitHub and re-push  though the commands used are a bit more verbose than necessary  git push origin  name of the old branch on github git push origin new name of the branch that is local  Dissecting the commands a bit  the git push command is essentially  git push  lt remote gt   lt local branch gt   lt remote branch gt   So doing a push with no local branch specified essentially means  quot take nothing from my local repository  and make it the remote branch quot    I ve always thought this to be completely kludgy  but it s the way it s done  As of Git 1 7 there is an alternate syntax for deleting a remote branch  git push origin --delete name of the remote branch  As mentioned by  void pointer in the comments  Note that you can combine the 2 push operations  git push origin  old branch new branch This will both delete the old branch and push the new one   This can be turned into a simple alias that takes the remote  original branch and new branch name as arguments  in    gitconfig   alias      branchm    quot  git branch -m  2  3  amp  amp  git push  1   2  3 -u   quot   Usage  git branchm origin old branch new branch  Note that positional arguments in shell commands were problematic in older  pre 2 8   versions of Git  so the alias might vary according to the Git version  See this discussion for details

User · Answer

Simple as that  In order to rename a Git branch locally and remotely use this snippet  tested and works like a charm   git branch -m  lt oldBranchName gt   lt newBranchName gt  git push origin   lt oldBranchName gt  git push --set-upstream origin  lt newBranchName gt   Explanation   Rename step    Git reference  With a -m or -M option   lt oldbranch gt  will be renamed to  lt newbranch gt   If  lt oldbranch gt  had a corresponding reflog  it is renamed to match  lt newbranch gt   and a reflog entry is created to remember the branch renaming  If  lt newbranch gt  exists  -M must be used to force the rename to happen    Delete step    Git reference  git push origin  experimental Find a ref that matches experimental in the origin repository  e g  refs heads experimental   and delete it    Update on remote repository step  upstream reference for tracking     Git reference  --set-upstream For every branch that is up to date or successfully pushed  add upstream  tracking  reference  used by argument-less git-pull 1  and other commands  For more information  see branch  lt name gt  merge in git-config 1

User · Answer

Three simple steps  git push origin head  git branch -m old-branch-name new-branch-name  git push origin head

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You can do that without the terminal  You just need to create a branch with the new name  and remove the old after   Create a branch In your repository   s branch selector  just start typing a new branch name  It   ll give you the option to create a new branch   It   ll branch off of your current context  For example  if you   re on the bugfix branch  it   ll create a new branch from bugfix instead of master  Looking at a commit or a tag instead  It   ll branch your code from that specific revision  Delete a branch You   ll also see a delete button in your repository   s Branches page   As an added bonus  it   ll also give you a link to the branch   s Pull Request  if it has one   I just copied this content from  Create and delete branches

User · Answer

Just remove the old branch and create new one   Example  solely renaming the remote branch    git push origin  refs heads oldname git push origin newname refs heads newname   You also probably should rename local branch and change settings for where to push pull

User · Answer

Rename branches in Git local and remote 1  Rename your local branch  If you are on the branch you want to rename  git branch -m new-name  If you are on a different branch  git branch -m old-name new-name  2  Delete the old-name remote branch and push the new-name local branch  git push origin  old-name new-name  3  Reset the upstream branch for the new-name local branch  Switch to the branch and then  git push origin -u new-name  So the conclusion is  git branch -m new-name git push origin  old-name new-name git push origin -u new-name

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In my case  I needed an additional command  git branch --unset-upstream  to get my renamed branch to push up to origin newname   For ease of typing   I first git checkout oldname  Then run the following  git branch -m newname  lt br  gt  git push origin  oldname or git push origin --delete oldname  git branch --unset-upstream  git push -u origin newname or git push origin newname This extra step may only be necessary because I  tend to  set up remote tracking on my branches via git push -u origin oldname  This way  when I have oldname checked out  I subsequently only need to type git push rather than git push origin oldname  If I do not use the command git branch --unset-upstream before git push origin newbranch  git re-creates oldbranch and pushes newbranch to origin oldbranch -- defeating my intent

User · Answer

Here is what worked for me   Create the new branch first  git push github newname  refs heads newname   On the GitHub site  go to settings and change the Default branch to newname  Delete the oldname git push github --delete oldname

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On GitHub side  you can use the new  Jan  2021   quot Support for renaming an existing branch quot  Follow this tutorial  https   docs github com en github administering-a-repository renaming-a-branch  See  quot How do I rename branch on the GitHub website  quot   This is a better approach  because renaming a branch that way  on github com  will  source    Re-target any open pull requests Update any draft releases based on the branch Move any branch protection rules that explicitly reference the old name Update the branch used to build GitHub Pages  if applicable Show a notice to repository contributors  maintainers  and admins on the repository homepage with instructions to update local copies of the repository Show a notice to contributors who git push to the old branch Redirect web requests for the old branch name to the new branch name Return a  quot Moved Permanently quot  response in API requests for the old branch name

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On the Git branch  run  git branch -m old name  new name  This will modify the branch name on your local repository  git push origin  old name new name  This will push the modified name to the remote and delete the old branch  git push origin -u new name  It sets the local branch to track the remote branch  This solves the issue

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The following commands worked for me  git push origin  old-name-of-branch-on-github git branch -m old-name-of-branch-on-github new-name-for-branch-you-want git push origin new-name-for-branch-you-want

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The following commands rename the branch locally  delete the old branch on the remote location and push the new branch  setting the local branch to track the new remote   git branch -m old branch new branch git push origin  old branch git push --set-upstream origin new branch

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This article shows how to do it real easy   To rename a local Git branch  we can use the Git branch -m command to modify the name   git branch -m feature1 feature2   If you   re just looking for the command to rename a remote Git branch  this is it   git push -u origin feature2 feature3  Check that you have no tags on the branch before you do this  You can do that with git tag

[git] Renaming a branch in GitHub

Branch is now renamed (local and remote!)

Attention

Branch is now renamed from `awe/some/branch` to `new-branch-name` (local and remote!)

Directories in branch-name got removed.

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