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This article explains how we can move the Git branch pointer to a different commit. We will see how to move the pointer when the target branch is both checked out and not checked out.

Let's start with something simpler.

Move the Git branch pointer to a different commit when checked out in the target branch

The example below shows a feature branch in our repository. Here is the commit history.

We want to move our branch pointer from commit 4ee91ac to commit e65841a (i.e. HEAD@{2}). How can we do this?

Since we are checked out in the feature branch, our destination, we can run the git reset command as shown below.

$ git reset --hard e65841a

The output is as follows:

HEAD is now at e65841a Update README.md

This will move our reference to the specified commit. Easy, right?

Let's move on to the next scene.

Move Git branch pointer to a different commit when target branch is not checked out

Let's switch to the master branch. How do we move the branch pointer for our feature branch while the master branch is checked out?

There are two methods available. We will start with the simplest.

git branch command

The following is the basic syntax of the commands for this scenario.

$ git branch -f <branch-name> <commit-hash>

In this case, we want to move the pointer to the afcc8bb commit. How do we do that?

As shown below, we can use git branchthe command to move the pointer of the feature branch.

$ git branch -f feature afcc8bb

This should move the pointer to the specified commit. Let's confirm that our situation is the same.

It's so simple. Let's look at another way.

git update-ref command

As shown below, we can use git update-refthe command to move the branch pointer.

$ git update-ref -m "reset: Reset <branch-name> to <sha1-commit-hash>" refs/heads/<branch-name> <sha1-commit-hash>

We want to move the pointer further to the 124bfa9 commit. Here is how we will do it.

First, let's switch back to the master branch. Then we will run the command as shown below.

$ git update-ref -m "reset: Reset feature to 124bfa9" refs/heads/feature 124bfa9

The above command will move the pointer and add a message to the reflog of our feature branch . Let's confirm our situation.

In short, Git allows us to move branch pointers both when the target branch is checked out and when it is not checked out. We have covered different commands for both cases.