Create a branch in Git from another branch

Question

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

User · Answer

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

Assumptions:

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

Steps:

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.

Now, from master branch checkout to the newly fetched branch
```
$ git checkout BranchExisting
```
You are now in BranchExisting. Now create a new branch from this existing branch.
```
$ git checkout -b BranchMyNew
```

Here you go!

User · Answer

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  lt new branch gt   from branch   man git branch shows it as   git branch  --track   --no-track   -l   -f   lt branchname gt    lt start-point gt     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  quot undo quot  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  quot renaming quot  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  lt old name gt   lt new name gt   man git branch shows it like this   git branch  -m   -M    lt oldbranch gt    lt newbranch gt    Example  let s rename branch 1 to branch 1 5  git branch -m branch 1 branch 1 5

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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    Checkout or change into  branch1   git checkout branch1  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   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

User · Answer

If you like the method in the link you ve posted  have a look at Git Flow   It s a set of scripts he created for that workflow   But to answer your question     git checkout -b myFeature dev   Creates MyFeature branch off dev  Do your work and then    git commit -am  Your message    Now merge your changes to dev without a fast-forward    git checkout dev   git merge --no-ff myFeature   Now push changes to the server    git push origin dev   git push origin myFeature   And you ll see it how you want it

User · Answer

For creating a branch from another one can use this syntax as well   git push origin refs heads  lt sourceBranch gt  refs heads  lt targetBranch gt    It is a little shorter than  git checkout -b      git push origin

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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                             Multiline difference     git diff master  branch1   Singleline difference     git diff --color-words branch1  branch2

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

To create a branch from another branch in your local directory you can use following command   git checkout -b  lt sub-branch gt  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

[git] Create a branch in Git from another branch

Examples related to git

Examples related to git-branch

Examples related to git-workflow

Examples related to git-flow