JIYIK CN >

Git is a very useful and powerful tool in the modern software world. Many types of files and codes can be stored through branches and commits in Git. Branches are a different concept depending on the version control system you use. Many developers consider it the most preferred version control system due to its efficiency.

Most of the time, we face a situation when after completing some work and committing to a particular branch, we realize that we have committed to the wrong branch by mistake and want to commit again on another branch. Git comes to our rescue and allows us to move commits to other existing branches or new branches.

This guide will give us a basic understanding of how to move our commits to another branch, which could be a new or existing branch. Additionally, we will discuss how to use the git branch command to create new branches, git resetthe command to move commits, and the git merge command to merge those changes back into the main branch.

Counting commits for migrations in Git

Before we start the whole process, we need to judge the situation. Assume that we have already checked out the branch we want to change; to do this, we need to understand the history.

We will use the following command to calculate the number of commits to move.

git log

After executing, we can see HEADthat are origin/HEADthe two commits at the head of , which are the two desired commits we need to move to another branch. Below are the remaining steps, where we will describe how to move these commits to a new or existing branch.

Moving commits to a new branch in Git

The steps mentioned below will show us how to move the latest commit to a new branch.

• Create a new branch

  git branch feature/new branch
  

  This command will create a new branch that will contain master(current)all the commits from the branch.

• Move the current branch back two commits

  git reset --keep HEAD~2
  

• Check out the new branch

  git checkout feature/new branch
  

By executing these, our two latest commits have been masterremoved from (current branch) and added to a feature/new branchnew branch called .

Moving commits to an existing branch in Git

The steps mentioned below will show us how to move the latest commit to an existing branch. This is useful for us if we have been working with feature branches, but we started making commits in the wrong branch by mistake. Let's assume that the current branch and the commit we want to delete is master.

• Check out existing branches

  git checkout feature/existing branch
  

  The command git checkoutis not limited to working with the working directory. It can also be used to HEADmove the reference pointer to a reference point on a branch.

• Merge master branch

  git merge master
  

  git mergeThe command can also be used to merge a branch into the current branch, but only if the current branch has already been merged into the branch being merged.

• View the master branch<

  git checkout master
  

  The command checkoutmaster pulls down the latest version of the code and creates a masternew branch called .

• Move the current branch back two commits:

  git reset --keep HEAD~2
  

  --keepThe -p option will reset the index entries and update the working tree HEADfor files that differ between commit and . reset will terminate when files differ between commits and HEAD has local changes. Thus, the latest two commits are masterremoved from and added to the existing branch.