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 && 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!" > testing
~/test $ git status
# On branch master
# Changed but not updated:
# (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
# (use "git checkout -- <file>..." 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 <file>..." to update what will be committed)
# (use "git checkout -- <file>..." 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 <file>..." to update what will be committed)
# (use "git checkout -- <file>..." 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 <file>..." to update what will be committed)
# (use "git checkout -- <file>..." 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?
The answer is
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.
Try:
git stash
git checkout -b new-branch
git stash apply
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 - <-- the dash is a shortcut for the previous branch you were on )
(git stash -u <-- the -u means that it also takes unstaged changes )
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.
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 & commit your changes to the new branch.
git add .
git commit -m "First commit"
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.
Source: Stackoverflow.com