Renaming branches remotely in Git

Question

If there is a repository that I only have git    access to  and would usually just push pull   is there a way to rename branches in that repository in the same way that I would do locally with git branch -m

User · Answer

You just have to create a new local branch with the desired name, push it to your remote, and then delete the old remote branch:

$ git branch new-branch-name origin/old-branch-name
$ git push origin --set-upstream new-branch-name
$ git push origin :old-branch-name

Then, to see the old branch name, each client of the repository would have to do:

$ git fetch origin
$ git remote prune origin

NOTE: If your old branch is your main branch, you should change your main branch settings. Otherwise, when you run $ git push origin :old-branch-name, you'll get the error "deletion of the current branch prohibited".

User · Answer

If you really just want to rename branches remotely  without renaming any local branches at the same time  you can do this with a single command  git push  lt remote gt   lt remote gt   lt old name gt  refs heads  lt new name gt    lt old name gt   I wrote this script  git-rename-remote-branch  which provides a handy shortcut to do the above easily  As a bash function  git-rename-remote-branch      if      -ne 3    then     echo  quot Rationale   Rename a branch on the server without checking it out  quot      echo  quot Usage         FUNCNAME 0    lt remote gt   lt old name gt   lt new name gt  quot      echo  quot Example       FUNCNAME 0   origin master release quot      return 1    fi    git push  1  1  2  refs heads  3   2    To integrate  ksrb s comment  What this basically does is two pushes in a single command  first git push  lt remote gt   lt remote gt   lt old name gt  refs heads  lt new name gt  to push a new remote branch based on the old remote tracking branch and then git push  lt remote gt    lt old name gt  to delete the old remote branch

User · Answer

Adding to the answers already given  here is a version that first checks whether the new branch already exists  so you can safely use it in a script   if git ls-remote --heads   remote          cut -f2         sed  s refs heads             grep -q    newname    then     echo  Error   newname already exists      exit 1 fi git push   oldname    remote  oldname refs heads  newname     oldname     the check is from this answer

User · Answer

You can create a new branch based on old-name branch  Just like this  then delete the old branch  over

User · Answer

Sure  Just rename the branch locally  push the new branch  and push a deletion of the old   The only real issue is that other users of the repository won t have local tracking branches renamed

User · Answer

First checkout to the branch which you want to rename   git branch -m old branch new branch git push -u origin new branch   To remove an old branch from remote   git push origin  old branch

User · Answer

I don t know why but  Sylvain Defresne s answer does not work for me   git branch new-branch-name origin old-branch-name git push origin --set-upstream new-branch-name git push origin  old-branch-name   I have to unset the upstream and then I can set the stream again  The following is how I did it   git checkout -b new-branch-name git branch --unset-upstream git push origin new-branch-name -u git branch origin  old-branch-name

User · Answer

TL DR   Renaming  a remote branch is actually a 2 step process  not necessarily ordered      deletion of the old remote branch  git push  space   lt old name gt  as ksrb explained   push into a new remote branch  difference between a couple of answers commands below     Deleting  I use TortoiseGit and when I first tried to delete the branch through the command line  I got this      git push origin  in          fatal   origin  does not appear to be a git repository   fatal  Could not read from remote repository          Please make sure you have the correct access rights and the repository exists    This was likely due to pageant not having the private key loaded  which TortoiseGit loads automatically into pageant   Moreover  I noticed that TortoiseGit commands do not have the origin ref in them  e g  git exe push --progress  my project  interesting local interesting    I am also using Bitbucket and  as others web-based online git managers of the sort  GitHub  GitLab   I was able to delete the remote branch directly through their interface  branches page      However  in TortoiseGit you may also delete remote branches through Browse References     By right-clicking on a remote branch  remotes list  the Delete remote branch option shows up     Pushing  After deleting the old remote branch I pushed directly into a new remote branch through TortoiseGit just by typing the new name in the Remote  field of the Push window and this branch was automatically created and visible in Bitbucket   However  if you still prefer to do it manually  a point that has not been mentioned yet in this thread is that -u   --set-upstream   From git push docs  -u is just an alias of --set-upstream  so the commands in the answers of Sylvain  -set-upstream new-branch  and Shashank  -u origin new branch  are equivalent  since the remote ref defaults to origin if no other ref was previously defined    git push origin -u new branch   git push -u new branch from the docs description      If the configuration is missing  it defaults to origin     In the end  I did not manually type in or used any of the commands suggested by the other answers in here  so perhaps this might be useful to others in a similar situation

User · Answer

I don t know if this is right or wrong  but I pushed the  old name  of the branch to the  new name  of the branch  then deleted the old branch entirely with the following two lines   git push origin old branch new branch git push origin  old branch

[git] Renaming branches remotely in Git

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