How do I make a branch point at a specific commit

Question

In Git  I understand that a branch is a pointer to a commit   How do I make a specific branch point to a specific commit  Say I want to make master point at 1258f0d0aae     how do I do that

User · Answer

If you are currently not on branch master  that s super easy   git branch -f master 1258f0d0aae   This does exactly what you want  It points master at the given commit  and does nothing else   If you are currently on master  you need to get into detached head state first  I d recommend the following two command sequence   git checkout 1258f0d0aae     detach from master git branch -f master HEAD    exactly as above   optionally reattach to master git checkout master   Be aware  though  that any explicit manipulation of where a branch points has the potential to leave behind commits that are no longer reachable by any branches  and thus become object to garbage collection  So  think before you type git branch -f     This method is better than the git reset --hard approach  as it does not destroy anything in the index or working directory

User · Answer

You can make master point at 1258f0d0aae this way   git checkout master git reset --hard 1258f0d0aae   But you have to be careful about doing this  It may well rewrite the history of that branch  That would create problems if you have published it and other people are working on the branch   Also  the git reset --hard command will throw away any uncommitted changes  i e  those just in your working tree or the index    You can also force an update to a branch with   git branch -f master 1258f0d0aae       but git won t let you do that if you re on master at the time

User · Answer

git branch -f  lt branchname   lt commit   I go with Mark Longair s solution and comments and recommend anyone reads those before acting  but I d suggest the emphasis should be on   git branch -f  lt branchname gt   lt commit gt    Here is a scenario where I have needed to do this   Scenario  Develop on the wrong branch and hence need to reset it   Start Okay  Cleanly develop and release some software     Develop on wrong branch  Mistake  Accidentally stay on the release branch while developing further     Realize the mistake   OH NO  I accidentally developed on the release branch   The workspace is maybe cluttered with half changed files that represent work-in-progress and we really don t want to touch and mess with  We d just like git to flip a few pointers to keep track of the current state and put that release branch back how it should be   Create a branch for the development that is up to date holding the work committed so far and switch to it   git branch development git checkout development      Correct the branch  Now we are in the problem situation and need its solution  Rectify the mistake  of taking the release branch forward with the development  and put the release branch back how it should be   Correct the release branch to point back to the last real release   git branch -f release release2   The release branch is now correct again  like this        What if I pushed the mistake to a remote   git push -f  lt remote gt   lt branch gt  is well described in another thread  though the word  overwrite  in the title is misleading  Force  quot git push quot  to overwrite remote files

User · Answer

git reset --hard 1258f0d0aae   But be careful  if the descendant commits between 1258f0d0aae and HEAD are not referenced in other branches it ll be tedious  but not impossible  to recover them  so you d better to create a  backup  branch at current HEAD  checkout master  and reset to the commit you want   Also  be sure that you don t have uncommitted changes before a reset --hard  they will be truly lost  no way to recover

[git] How do I make a branch point at a specific commit?

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