[git] Create a branch in Git from another branch

I have two branches: master and dev

I want to create a "feature branch" from the dev branch.

Currently on the branch dev, I do:

$ git checkout -b myfeature dev

... (some work)

$ git commit -am "blablabla"
$ git push origin myfeature

But, after visualizing my branches, I got:

--**master**
------0-----0-----0-----0-----0
------------------------**dev**----**myfeature**

I mean that the branch seems ff merged, and I don't understand why...

What I'm doing wrong?

Can you explain me please how you branch off from another branch and push back to the remote repository for the feature branch?

All that in a branching model like the one described here.

To create a branch from another branch in your local directory you can use following command.

git checkout -b <sub-branch> branch

For Example:

• name of the new branch to be created 'XYZ'
• name of the branch ABC under which XYZ has to be created

git checkout -b XYZ ABC

For creating a branch from another one can use this syntax as well:

git push origin refs/heads/<sourceBranch>:refs/heads/<targetBranch>

It is a little shorter than "git checkout -b " + "git push origin "

Create a Branch

• Create branch when master branch is checked out. Here commits in master will be synced to the branch you created.

  $ git branch branch1

• Create branch when branch1 is checked out . Here commits in branch1 will be synced to branch2

  $ git branch branch2

Checkout a Branch

git checkout command switch branches or restore working tree files

• $ git checkout branchname

Renaming a Branch

• $ git branch -m branch1 newbranchname

Delete a Branch

• $ git branch -d branch-to-delete
• $ git branch -D branch-to-delete ( force deletion without checking the merged status )

Create and Switch Branch

• $ git checkout -b branchname

Branches that are completely included

• $ git branch --merged

************************** Branch Differences [ git diff branch1..branch2 ] ************************

• $ git diff master..branch1

• $ git diff --color-words branch1..branch2

Git 2.23 introduces git switch and git restore to split the responsibilities of git checkout

Creating a new branch from an existing branch as of git 2.23:

git switch -c my-new-branch

Switched to a new branch 'my-new-branch'

• -c is short for --create and replaces the well-known git checkout -b

Take a look at this Github blog post explaining the changes in greater detail:

Git 2.23 brings a new pair of experimental commands to the suite of existing ones: git switch and git restore. These two are meant to eventually provide a better interface for the well-known git checkout. The new commands intend to each have a clear separation, neatly divvying up what the many responsibilities of git checkout

Switch to the develop branch:

$ git checkout develop

Creates feature/foo branch of develop.

$ git checkout -b feature/foo develop

merge the changes to develop without a fast-forward

$ git checkout develop
$ git merge --no-ff myFeature

Now push changes to the server

$ git push origin develop
$ git push origin feature/foo

Various ways to create a branch in git from another branch:

This answer adds some additional insight, not already present in the existing answers, regarding just the title of the question itself (Create a branch in Git from another branch), but does not address the more narrow specifics of the question which already have sufficient answers here.

I'm adding this because I really needed to know how to do #1 below just now (create a new branch from a branch I do NOT have checked out), and it wasn't obvious how to do it, and Google searches led to here as a top search result. So, I'll share my findings here. This isn't touched upon well, if at all, by any other answer here.

While I'm at it, I'll also add my other most-common git branch commands I use in my regular workflow, below.

1. To create a new branch from a branch you do NOT have checked out:

Create branch2 from branch1 while you have any branch whatsoever checked out (ex: let's say you have master checked out):

git branch branch2 branch1

The general format is:

git branch <new_branch> [from_branch]

man git branch shows it as:

git branch [--track | --no-track] [-l] [-f] <branchname> [<start-point>]

2. To create a new branch from the branch you DO have checked out:

git branch new_branch

This is great for making backups before rebasing, squashing, hard resetting, etc.--before doing anything which could mess up your branch badly.

Ex: I'm on feature_branch1, and I'm about to squash 20 commits into 1 using git rebase -i master. In case I ever want to "undo" this, let's back up this branch first! I do this ALL...THE...TIME and find it super helpful and comforting to know I can always easily go back to this backup branch and re-branch off of it to try again in case I mess up feature_branch1 in the process:

git branch feature_branch1_BAK_20200814-1320hrs_about_to_squash

The 20200814-1120hrs part is the date and time in format YYYYMMDD-HHMMhrs, so that would be 13:20hrs (1:20pm) on 14 Aug. 2020. This way I have an easy way to find my backup branches until I'm sure I'm ready to delete them. If you don't do this and you mess up badly, you have to use git reflog to go find your branch prior to messing it up, which is much harder, more stressful, and more error-prone.

3. To create and check out a new branch from the branch you DO have checked out:

git checkout -b new_branch

4. To rename a branch

Just like renaming a regular file or folder in the terminal, git considered "renaming" to be more like a 'm'ove command, so you use git branch -m to rename a branch. Here's the general format:

git branch -m <old_name> <new_name>

man git branch shows it like this:

git branch (-m | -M) [<oldbranch>] <newbranch>

Example: let's rename branch_1 to branch_1.5:

git branch -m branch_1 branch_1.5

Do simultaneous work on the dev branch. What happens is that in your scenario the feature branch moves forward from the tip of the dev branch, but the dev branch does not change. It's easier to draw as a straight line, because it can be thought of as forward motion. You made it to point A on dev, and from there you simply continued on a parallel path. The two branches have not really diverged.

Now, if you make a commit on dev, before merging, you will again begin at the same commit, A, but now features will go to C and dev to B. This will show the split you are trying to visualize, as the branches have now diverged.

*-----*Dev-------*Feature

Versus

       /----*DevB
*-----*DevA
       \----*FeatureC

If you want to make a branch from some another branch then follow bellow steps:

Assumptions:

1. You are currently in master branch.
2. You have no changes to commit. (If you have any changes to commit, stash it!).
3. BranchExisting is the name of branch from which you need to make a new branch with name BranchMyNew.

Steps:

1. Fetch the branch to your local machine.

   $ git fetch origin BranchExisting : BranchExisting
   

This command will create a new branch in your local with same branch name.

2. Now, from master branch checkout to the newly fetched branch

   $ git checkout BranchExisting
   

3. You are now in BranchExisting. Now create a new branch from this existing branch.

   $ git checkout -b BranchMyNew
   

Here you go!

If you want create a new branch from any of the existing branches in Git, just follow the options.

First change/checkout into the branch from where you want to create a new branch. For example, if you have the following branches like:

• master
• dev
• branch1

So if you want to create a new branch called "subbranch_of_b1" under the branch named "branch1" follow the steps:

1. Checkout or change into "branch1"

   git checkout branch1
   

2. Now create your new branch called "subbranch_of_b1" under the "branch1" using the following command.

   git checkout -b subbranch_of_b1 branch1
   

   The above will create a new branch called subbranch_of_b1 under the branch branch1 (note that branch1 in the above command isn't mandatory since the HEAD is currently pointing to it, you can precise it if you are on a different branch though).

3. Now after working with the subbranch_of_b1 you can commit and push or merge it locally or remotely.

push the subbranch_of_b1 to remote

 git push origin subbranch_of_b1