[git] Create Git branch with current changes

I started working on my master branch thinking that my task would be easy. After a while I realized it would take more work and I want to do all this work in a new branch.

How can I create a new branch and take all these changes with me without dirtying master?

This question is related to git git-branch

The answer is


If you hadn't made any commit yet, only (1: branch) and (3: checkout) would be enough.
Or, in one command: git checkout -b newBranch

As mentioned in the git reset man page:

$ git branch topic/wip     # (1)
$ git reset --hard HEAD~3  # (2)  NOTE: use $git reset --soft HEAD~3 (explanation below)
$ git checkout topic/wip   # (3)
  1. You have made some commits, but realize they were premature to be in the "master" branch. You want to continue polishing them in a topic branch, so create "topic/wip" branch off of the current HEAD.
  2. Rewind the master branch to get rid of those three commits.
  3. Switch to "topic/wip" branch and keep working.

Note: due to the "destructive" effect of a git reset --hard command (it does resets the index and working tree. Any changes to tracked files in the working tree since <commit> are discarded), I would rather go with:

$ git reset --soft HEAD~3  # (2)

This would make sure I'm not losing any private file (not added to the index).
The --soft option won't touch the index file nor the working tree at all (but resets the head to <commit>, just like all modes do).


With Git 2.23+, the new command git switch would create the branch in one line (with the same kind of reset --hard, so beware of its effect):

git switch -f -c topic/wip HEAD~3

Like stated in this question: Git: Create a branch from unstagged/uncommited changes on master: stash is not necessary.

Just use:

git checkout -b topic/newbranch

Any uncommitted work will be taken along to the new branch.

If you try to push you will get the following message

fatal: The current branch feature/NEWBRANCH has no upstream branch. To push the current branch and set the remote as upstream, use

git push --set-upstream origin feature/feature/NEWBRANCH

Just do as suggested to create the branch remotely:

git push --set-upstream origin feature/feature/NEWBRANCH


Follow these steps:

  1. Create a new branch:

    git branch newfeature
    
  2. Checkout new branch: (this will not reset your work.)

    git checkout newfeature
    
  3. Now commit your work on this new branch:

    git commit -s
    

Using above steps will keep your original branch clean and you dont have to do any 'git reset --hard'.


To add new changes to a new branch and push to remote:

git branch branch/name
git checkout branch/name
git push origin branch/name

Often times I forget to add the origin part to push and get confused why I don't see the new branch/commit in bitbucket


Since you haven't made any commits yet, you can save all your changes to the stash, create and switch to a new branch, then pop those changes back into your working tree:

git stash  # save local modifications to new stash
git checkout -b topic/newbranch
git stash pop  # apply stash and remove it from the stash list