[git] What to do with commit made in a detached head

Using git I made something like this

git clone
git checkout {a rev number tree rev before} (here I started to be in a detached head state)
//hacking
git commit
//hacking
git commit
(some commit where made on origin/master)
git pull (which does complete because there was some error due to the fact that I'm no more on master)

Because it said to me that I can still commit when in a detached head state, I did so. But now I want to like merge my detached head branch and my local master branch, and then push my bunch of changes to origin/master.

So my question is how could I merge the master branch with my actual state (detached head)

You can just do git merge <commit-number> or git cherry-pick <commit> <commit> ...

As suggested by Ryan Stewart you may also create a branch from the current HEAD:

git branch brand-name

Or just a tag:

git tag tag-name

An easy fix is to just create a new branch for that commit and checkout to it: git checkout -b <branch-name> <commit-hash>.

In this way, all the changes you made will be saved in that branch. In case you need to clean up your master branch from leftover commits be sure to run git reset --hard master.

With this, you will be rewriting your branches so be sure not to disturb anyone with these changes. Be sure to take a look at this article for a better illustration of detached HEAD state.

In case of detached HEAD, commits work like normal, except no named branch gets updated. To get master branch updated with your committed changes, make a temporary branch where you are (this way the temporary branch will have all the committed changes you have made in the detached HEAD) , then switch to the master branch and merge the temporary branch with the master.

git branch  temp
git checkout master
git merge temp

checkout actual-branch

git merge {{commit-hash}}

You could do something like this.

# Create temporary branch for your detached head
git branch tmp

# Go to master
git checkout master

# Merge in commits from previously detached head
git merge tmp

# Delete temporary branch
git branch -d tmp

Even simpler would be

git checkout master
git merge HEAD@{1}

but this has the slight danger that if you do make a mistake it can be a little harder to recover the commits made on the detached head.

Maybe not the best solution, (will rewrite history) but you could also do git reset --hard <hash of detached head commit>.

This is what I did:

Basically, think of the detached HEAD as a new branch, without name. You can commit into this branch just like any other branch. Once you are done committing, you want to push it to the remote.

So the first thing you need to do is give this detached HEAD a name. You can easily do it like, while being on this detached HEAD:

git checkout -b some-new-branch

Now you can push it to remote like any other branch.

In my case, I also wanted to fast-forward this branch to master along with the commits I made in the detached HEAD (now some-new-branch). All I did was

git checkout master

git pull # To make sure my local copy of master is up to date

git checkout some-new-branch

git merge master // This added current state of master to my changes

Of course, I merged it later to master.

That's about it.

Alternatively, you could cherry-pick the commit-id onto your branch.

<commit-id> made in detached head state

git checkout master

git cherry-pick <commit-id>

No temporary branches, no merging.