Move existing uncommitted work to a new branch in Git

Question

I started some work on a new feature and after coding for a bit  I decided this feature should be on its own branch    How do I move the existing uncommitted changes to a new branch and reset my current one   I want to reset my current branch while preserving existing work on the new feature

User · Accepted Answer

Update 2020   Git 2 23 Git 2 23 adds the new switch subcommand in an attempt to clear some of the confusion that comes from the overloaded usage of checkout  switching branches  restoring files  detaching HEAD  etc   Starting with this version of Git  replace above s command with  git switch -c  lt new-branch gt   The behavior is identical and remains unchanged   Before Update 2020   Git 2 23 Use the following  git checkout -b  lt new-branch gt   This will leave your current branch as it is  create and checkout a new branch and keep all your changes  You can then stage changes in files to commit with  git add  lt files gt   and commit to your new branch with  git commit -m  quot  lt Brief description of this commit gt  quot   The changes in the working directory and changes staged in index do not belong to any branch yet  This changes the branch where those modifications would end in  You don t reset your original branch  it stays as it is  The last commit on  lt old-branch gt  will still be the same  Therefore you checkout -b and then commit

User · Answer

Alternatively    Save current changes to a temp stash     git stash Create a new branch based on this stash  and switch to the new branch     git stash branch  lt new-branch gt  stash  0    Tip  use tab key to reduce typing the stash name

User · Answer

If you commit it  you could also cherry-pick the single commit ID   I do this often when I start work in master  and then want to create a local branch before I push up to my origin    git cherry-pick  lt commitID gt    There is alot you can do with cherry-pick  as described here  but this could be a use-case for you

User · Answer

3 Steps to Commit your changes  Suppose you have created a new branch on GitHub with the name feature-branch     FETCH      git pull --all         Pull all remote branches     git branch -a          List all branches now   Checkout and switch to the feature-branch directory  You can simply copy the branch name from the output of branch -a command above     git checkout -b feature-branch   VALIDATE  Next use the git branch command to see the current branch  It will show feature-branch with   In front of it  git branch            COMMIT  git add     add all files git commit -m  Rafactore code or use your message    Take update and the push changes on the origin server    git pull origin feature-branch  git push origin feature-branch

User · Answer

I used  Robin answer  amp  listing all that I did   git status                                lt -- review list uncommitted changes git stash                                 lt -- stash uncommitted changes git stash branch  lt new-branch gt  stash  1    lt -- create a branch from stash git add                                   lt -- add local changes git status                                lt -- review the status  ready to commit git commit -m  local changes              lt -- commit the changes git branch --list                         lt -- see list of branches incl the one created above git status                                lt -- nothing to commit  working tree  new-branch  is clean git checkout  lt old-branch gt                  lt -- switch back       If the repo has more than one stash  see which one to apply to the new-branch   git stash list     stash  0   WIP on         stash  1   WIP on       and inspect the individual stash by   git stash show stash  1    Or inspect all stashes at once   git stash list -p

User · Answer

There is actually a really easy way to do this with GitHub Desktop now that I don t believe was a feature before    All you need to do is switch to the new branch in GitHub Desktop  and it will prompt you to leave your changes on the current branch  which will be stashed   or to bring your changes with you to the new branch  Just choose the second option  to bring the changes to the new branch  You can then commit as usual

User · Answer

The common scenario is the following  I forgot to create the new branch for the new feature  and was doing all the work in the old feature branch  I have commited all the  old  work to the master branch  and I want my new branch to grow from the  master   I have not made a single commit of my new work  Here is the branch structure   master -  Old feature   git stash  git checkout master git checkout -b  New branch  git stash apply

User · Answer

If you have been making commits on your main branch while you coded  but you now want to move those commits to a different branch  this is a quick way   Copy your current history onto a new branch  bringing along any uncommitted changes too   git checkout -b  lt new-feature-branch gt    Now force the original  quot messy quot  branch to roll back   without switching to it   git branch -f  lt previous-branch gt   lt earlier-commit-id gt   For example   git branch -f master origin master  or if you had made 4 commits   git branch -f master HEAD 4    Warning  git branch -f master origin master will reset the tracking information for that branch   So if you have configured your master branch to push to somewhere other than origin master then that configuration will be lost  Warning  If you rebase after branching  there is a danger that some commits may be lost  which is described here   The only way to avoid that is to create a new history using cherry-pick   That link describes the safest fool-proof method  although less convenient    If you have uncommitted changes  you may need to git stash at the start and git stash pop at the end

User · Answer

This may be helpful for all using tools for GIT  Command  Switch branch - it will move your changes to new-branch  Then you can commit changes      git checkout -b  lt new-branch gt    TortoiseGIT  Right-click on your repository and then use TortoiseGit- Switch Checkout     SourceTree  Use the  Checkout  button to switch branch  You will see the  checkout  button at the top after clicking on a branch  Changes from the current branch will be applied automatically   Then you can commit them

[git] Move existing, uncommitted work to a new branch in Git

Update 2020 / Git 2.23

Before Update 2020 / Git 2.23

Examples related to git

Examples related to git-branch

Examples related to git-stash

Examples related to git-reset