Git Create a branch from unstaged uncommitted changes on master

Question

Context  I m working on master adding a simple feature  After a few minutes I realize it was not so simple and it should have been better to work into a new branch   This always happens to me and I have no idea how to switch to another branch and take all these uncommited changes with me leaving the master branch clean  I supposed git stash  amp  amp  git stash branch new branch would simply accomplish that but this is what I get     test   git status   On branch master nothing to commit  working directory clean     test   echo  hello    gt  testing     test   git status   On branch master   Changed but not updated       use  git add  lt file gt      to update what will be committed       use  git checkout --  lt file gt      to discard changes in working directory        modified    testing   no changes added to commit  use  git add  and or  git commit -a      test   git stash Saved working directory and index state WIP on master  4402b8c testing HEAD is now at 4402b8c testing    test   git status   On branch master nothing to commit  working directory clean     test   git stash branch new branch Switched to a new branch  new branch    On branch new branch   Changed but not updated       use  git add  lt file gt      to update what will be committed       use  git checkout --  lt file gt      to discard changes in working directory        modified    testing   no changes added to commit  use  git add  and or  git commit -a   Dropped refs stash  0   db1b9a3391a82d86c9fdd26dab095ba9b820e35b     test   git s   On branch new branch   Changed but not updated       use  git add  lt file gt      to update what will be committed       use  git checkout --  lt file gt      to discard changes in working directory        modified    testing   no changes added to commit  use  git add  and or  git commit -a      test   git checkout master M   testing Switched to branch  master     test   git status   On branch master   Changed but not updated       use  git add  lt file gt      to update what will be committed       use  git checkout --  lt file gt      to discard changes in working directory        modified    testing   no changes added to commit  use  git add  and or  git commit -a     Do you know if there is any way of accomplishing this

User · Accepted Answer

No need to stash   git checkout -b new branch name   does not touch your local changes  It just creates the branch from the current HEAD and sets the HEAD there  So I guess that s what you want   --- Edit to explain the result of checkout master ---  Are you confused because checkout master does not discard your changes   Since the changes are only local  git does not want you to lose them too easily  Upon changing branch  git does not overwrite your local changes  The result of your checkout master is   M   testing     which means that your working files are not clean  git did change the HEAD  but did not overwrite your local files  That is why your last status still show your local changes  although you are on master   If you really want to discard the local changes  you have to force the checkout with -f   git checkout master -f   Since your changes were never committed  you d lose them   Try to get back to your branch  commit your changes  then checkout the master again   git checkout new branch git commit -a -m edited  git checkout master git status   You should get a M message after the first checkout  but then not anymore after the checkout master  and git status should show no modified files   --- Edit to clear up confusion about working directory  local files ---  In answer to your first comment  local changes are just    well  local  Git does not save them automatically  you must tell it to save them for later  If you make changes and do not explicitly commit or stash them  git will not version them  If you change HEAD  checkout master   the local changes are not overwritten since unsaved

User · Answer

Two things you can do   git checkout -b sillyname git commit -am  silly message  git checkout -    or  git stash -u git branch sillyname stash  0     git checkout -  lt -- the dash is a shortcut for the previous branch you were on     git stash -u  lt -- the -u means that it also takes unstaged changes

User · Answer

Try   git stash git checkout -b new-branch git stash apply

User · Answer

If you are using the GitHub Windows client  as I am  and you are in the situation of having made uncommitted changes that you wish to move to a new branch  you can simply  Crate a new branch  via the GitHub client  It will switch to the newly created branch and preserve your changes

User · Answer

If you want your current uncommited changes on the current branch to move to a new branch  use the following command to create a new branch and copy the uncommitted changes automatically  git checkout -b branch name  This will create a new branch from your current branch  assuming it to be master   copy the uncommited changes and switch to the new branch  Add files to stage  amp  commit your changes to the new branch  git add   git commit -m  quot First commit quot   Since  a new branch is created  before pushing it to remote  you need to set the upstream  Use the below command to set the upstream and push it to remote  git push --set-upstream origin feature feature NEWBRANCH  Once you hit this command  a new branch will be created at the remote and your new local branch will be pushed to remote  Now  if you want to throw away your uncommited changes from master branch  use  git checkout master -f  This will throw away any uncommitted local changes on checkout

User · Answer

In the latest GitHub client for Windows  if you have uncommitted changes  and choose to create a new branch  It prompts you how to handle this exact scenario     The same applies if you simply switch the branch too

[git] Git: Create a branch from unstaged/uncommitted changes on master

Examples related to git

Examples related to git-stash