How do I merge my local uncommitted changes into another Git branch

Question

How can I do the following in Git   My current branch is branch1 and I have made some local changes  However  I now realize that I actually meant to be applying these changes to branch2  Is there a way to apply merge these changes so that they become local changes on branch2 without committing them on branch1

User · Answer

If it were about committed changes  you should have a look at git-rebase  but as pointed out in comment by VonC  as you re talking about local changes  git-stash would certainly be the good way to do this

User · Answer

A shorter alternative to the previously mentioned stash approach would be      Temporarily move the changes to a stash     git stash       Create and switch to a new branch and then pop the stash to it in just one step     git stash branch new branch name   Then just add and commit the changes to this new branch

User · Answer

The answers given so far are not ideal because they require a lot of needless work resolving merge conflicts  or they make too many assumptions which are frequently false  This is how to do it perfectly  The link is to my own site   How to Commit to a Different Branch in git  You have uncommited changes on my branch that you want to commit to master  without committing all the changes from my branch   Example  git merge master git stash -u git checkout master git stash apply git reset git add example js git commit git checkout   git clean -f -d git checkout my branch git merge master git stash pop   Explanation  Start by merging master into your branch  since you ll have to do that eventually anyway  and now is the best time to resolve any conflicts   The -u option  aka --include-untracked  in git stash -u prevents you from losing untracked files when you later do git clean -f -d within master   After git checkout master it is important that you do NOT git stash pop  because you will need this stash later  If you pop the stash created in my branch and then do git stash in master  you will cause needless merge conflicts when you later apply that stash in my branch   git reset unstages everything resulting from git stash apply  For example  files that have been modified in the stash but do not exist in master get staged as  deleted by us  conflicts   git checkout   and git clean -f -d discard everything that isn t committed  all changes to tracked files  and all untracked files and directories  They are already saved in the stash and if left in master would cause needless merge conflicts when switching back to my branch   The last git stash pop will be based on the original my branch  and so will not cause any merge conflicts  However  if your stash contains untracked files which you have committed to master  git will complain that it  Could not restore untracked files from stash   To resolve this conflict  delete those files from your working tree  then git stash pop  git add    and git reset

User · Answer

Since your files are not yet committed in branch1   git stash git checkout branch2 git stash pop   or  git stash git checkout branch2 git stash list         to check the various stash made in different branch git stash apply x      to select the right one     As commented by benjohn  see git stash man page       To also stash currently untracked  newly added  files  add the argument -u  so     git stash -u

User · Answer

WARNING  Not for git newbies   This comes up enough in my workflow that I ve almost tried to write a new git command for it  The usual git stash flow is the way to go but is a little awkward  I usually make a new commit first since if I have been looking at the changes  all the information is fresh in my mind and it s better to just start git commit-ing what I found  usually a bugfix belonging on master that I discover while working on a feature branch  right away      It is also helpful   if you run into situations like this a lot   to have another working directory alongside your current one that always have the master branch checked out    So how I achieve this goes like this    git commit the changes right away with a good commit message  git reset HEAD 1 to undo the commit from current branch   optional  continue working on the feature    Sometimes later  asynchronously   or immediately in another terminal window    cd my-project-master which is another WD sharing the same  git git reflog to find the bugfix I ve just made  git cherry-pick SHA1 of the commit    Optionally  still asynchronous  you can then rebase  or merge  your feature branch to get the bugfix  usually when you are about to submit a PR and have cleaned your feature branch and WD already    cd my-project which is the main WD I m working on  git rebase master to get the bugfixes    This way I can keep working on the feature uninterrupted and not have to worry about git stash-ing anything or having to clean my WD before a git checkout  and then having the check the feature branch backout again   and still have all my bugfixes goes to master instead of hidden in my feature branch   IMO git stash and git checkout is a real PIA when you are in the middle of working on some big feature

User · Answer

Stashing  temporary commits and rebasing may all be overkill  If you haven t added the changed files to the index  yet  then you may be able to just checkout the other branch   git checkout branch2   This will work so long as no files that you are editing are different between branch1 and branch2  It will leave you on branch2 with you working changes preserved  If they are different then you can specify that you want to merge your local changes with the changes introduced by switching branches with the -m option to checkout   git checkout -m branch2   If you ve added changes to the index then you ll want to undo these changes with a reset first   This will preserve your working copy  it will just remove the staged changes    git reset

[git] How do I merge my local uncommitted changes into another Git branch?

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