Git How to rebase to a specific commit

Question

I d like to rebase to a specific commit  not to a HEAD of the other branch   A --- B --- C          master       -- D                topic   to  A --- B --- C          master                   -- D          topic   instead of   A --- B --- C          master                               -- D    topic   How can I achieve that

User · Answer

Use the  onto  option   git rebase --onto master  D  D

User · Answer

You can even take a direct approach   git checkout topic git rebase  lt commitB gt

User · Answer

Adding to the answers using --onto  I never learned it by heart  so I wrote this little helper script   Git  Rebase a  sub branch from one base to another  leaving the other base s commits   Usage  moveBranch  lt branch gt  from  lt previous-base gt  to  lt new-base gt   In short  git rebase --onto  quot  3 quot   quot  2 quot   quot  1 quot    Besides that  one more solution usable for similar purposes  is cherry-picking a streak of commits  git co  lt new-base gt   git cherry-pick  lt previous-base gt    lt branch gt  git branch -f branch  Which has more less the same effect  Note that this syntax SKIPS the commit at  lt previous-branch gt  itself  so it cherry-picks the next and the following up to  including  the commit at  lt branch gt

User · Answer

There is another way of doing it or if you wish to move back to more than just one commit   Here is a an example to move back to n number of commits   git branch topic master n   For the sake of this question  this can also be done   git branch topic master 1   The command works perfectly on git version 2 7 4  Haven t tested it on any other version

User · Answer

Topic Solution  The correct command to answer the posted question could be any of the following  assuming branch topic is already checked out    git rebase --onto B master git rebase --onto master 1 master git rebase --onto B A git rebase --onto B C git rebase --onto B   If topic is not checked out  you simply append topic to the command  except the last one  like so   git rebase --onto B master topic   Alternatively  check out the branch first with   git checkout topic   Rebase Any String of Commits to a Target Commit  The basic form of the command we need  cribbed from the documentation  is   git rebase --onto  lt Target gt    lt Upstream gt    lt Branch gt       lt Branch gt  is optional and all it does is checks out the branch specified before executing the rest of the command  If you ve already checked out the branch you want to rebase  then you don t need this  Note that you must have specified  lt Upstream gt  in order to specify  lt Branch gt  or git will think you are specifying  lt Upstream gt     lt Target gt  is the commit we will attach our string of commits to  When providing a branch name  you are simply specifying the head commit of that branch   lt Target gt  can be any commit that won t be contained in the string of commits being moved  For example   A --- B --- C --- D         master                 -- X --- Y --- Z    feature   To move the entire feature branch  you can not select X  Y  Z  or feature as the  lt Target gt  since those all are commits inside the group being moved    lt Upstream gt  is special because it can mean two different things  If it is a commit that is an ancestor of the checked out branch  then it serves as the cut point  In the example I provided  this would be anything that isn t C  D  or master  All commits after  lt Upstream gt  until the head of the checked out branch are the ones that will be moved   However  if  lt Upstream gt  is not an ancestor  then git backs up the chain from the specified commit until if finds a common ancestor with the checked out branch  and aborts if it can t find one   In our case  an  lt Upstream gt  of B  C  D  or master will all result in commit B serving as the cut point   lt Upstream gt  is itself an optional command and if it is not specified  then git looks at the parent of the checked out branch which is the equivalent of entering master   Now that git has selected the commits it will cut and move  it applies them in order to  lt Target gt   skipping any that are already applied to target   Interesting Examples and Results  Using this starting point   A --- B --- C --- D --- E         master                             -- X --- Y --- Z    feature    git rebase --onto D A feature Will apply commits B  C  X  Y  Z to commit D and end up skipping B and C because they already have been applied  git rebase --onto C X feature Will apply commits Y and Z to commit C  effectively deleting commit X

User · Answer

A simpler solution is git rebase  lt SHA1 of B gt  topic  This works irrespective of where your HEAD is   We can confirm this behaviour from git rebase doc      lt upstream gt  Upstream branch to compare against  May be any valid   commit  not just an existing branch name  Defaults to the configured   upstream for the current branch     You might be thinking what will happen if I mention SHA1 of topic too in the above command    git rebase  lt SHA1 of B gt   lt SHA1 of topic gt   This will also work but rebase then won t make Topic point to new branch so created and HEAD will be in detached state  So from here you have to manually delete old Topic and create a new branch reference on new branch created by rebase

User · Answer

You can avoid using the --onto parameter by making a temp branch on the commit you like and then use rebase in its simple form   git branch temp master  git checkout topic git rebase temp git branch -d temp

User · Answer

The comment by jsz above saved me tons of pain  so here s a step-by-step recipie based on it that I ve been using to rebase move any commit on top of any other commit    Find a previous branching point of the branch to be rebased  moved  - call it old parent  In the example above that s A Find commit on top of which you want to move the branch to - call it new parent  In the exampe that s B You need to be on your branch  the one you move    Apply your rebase  git rebase --onto  lt new parent gt   lt old parent gt    In the example above that s as simple as      git checkout topic    git rebase --onto B A

User · Answer

Since rebasing is so fundamental  here s an expansion of Nestor Milyaev s answer   Combining jsz s and Simon South s comments from Adam Dymitruk s answer yields this command which works on the topic branch regardless of whether it branches from the master branch s commit A or C   git checkout topic git rebase --onto  lt commit-B gt   lt pre-rebase-A-or-post-rebase-C-or-base-branch-name gt    Note that the last argument is required  otherwise it rewinds your branch to commit B    Examples     if topic branches from master commit A  git checkout topic git rebase --onto  lt commit-B gt   lt commit-A gt      if topic branches from master commit C  git checkout topic git rebase --onto  lt commit-B gt   lt commit-C gt      regardless of whether topic branches from master commit A or C  git checkout topic git rebase --onto  lt commit-B gt  master   So the last command is the one that I typically use

User · Answer

I ve used a mixture of solutions described above     git branch temp  lt specific sha1 gt    git rebase --onto temp master topic   git branch -d temp   I found it much easier to read and understand  The accepted solution lead me to a merge conflict  too lazy to fix by hand      git rebase temp First  rewinding head to replay your work on top of it    Applying   lt git comment gt  Using index info to reconstruct a base tree    M       pom xml  git rebase-apply patch 10  trailing whitespace       lt some code gt   git rebase-apply patch 17  trailing whitespace           lt some other code gt  warning  2 lines add whitespace errors  Falling back to patching base and 3-way merge    Auto-merging pom xml CONFLICT  content   Merge conflict in pom xml error  Failed to merge in the changes  Patch failed at 0001  lt git comment gt  The copy of the patch that failed is found in   git rebase-apply patch  When you have resolved this problem  run  git rebase --continue   If you prefer to skip this patch  run  git rebase --skip  instead  To check out the original branch and stop rebasing  run  git rebase --abort

[git] Git: How to rebase to a specific commit?

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