I'm writing some scripts for my Git workflow.
I need to reset other (existing) branch to the current one, without checkout.
Before:
CurrentBranch: commit A
OtherBranch: commit B
After:
CurrentBranch: commit A
OtherBranch: commit A
Equivalent of
$ git checkout otherbranch
$ git reset --soft currentbranch
$ git checkout currentbranch
(Note --soft: I do not want to affect working tree.)
Is this possible?
Set otherbranch to point at the same commit as currentbranch by running
git branch -f otherbranch currentbranch
The -f (force) option tells git branch yes, I really mean to overwrite any existing otherbranch reference with the new one.
From the documentation:
-f
--forceReset to if exists already. Without -f git branch refuses to change an existing branch.
fatal: Cannot force update the current branch. when trying to do this.
Commented
Jun 25, 2014 at 15:42
otherbranch checked out. This SO question is specifically about resetting another branch to a different commit (i.e. not resetting the checked-out branch). What you want to do is reset the current branch with git reset targetbranch to force the current branch to be pointed at targetbranch. Add --hard to also force the work tree to that content. Or --soft to leave the index alone and only change the branch itself.
Commented
Jun 25, 2014 at 19:28
branch -f could do that.
Commented
Jun 25, 2014 at 19:32
git checkout -B master upstream/master which would work regardless of whether master is checked out locally. But it will also switch the branch to master. If you have local changes in the workspace, probably bad.
Commented
Mar 23, 2015 at 16:23
git branch -f <branchname> <start-point> works fine with remote refs so long as you provide the full ref name as git branch -f master refs/remotes/origin/master
The workflows you describe are not equivalent: when you perform reset --hard you lose all the changes in the working tree (you might want to make it reset --soft).
What you need is
git update-ref refs/heads/OtherBranch refs/heads/CurrentBranch
refs/heads/ …
Commented
Apr 15, 2013 at 23:09
git push . current:other. This works without refs/heads (/cc @elliottcable), and it also prevents you from updating the checked-out branch. Note that you may need to pass -f (or use +current:other) if the update isn't a fast-forward.
Commented
Jun 6, 2013 at 7:41
-m 'some text' argument to record the reason for the ref update to be shown by git reflog OtherBranch command, such as "synched to CurrentBranch". May be useful to remember why you did it later.
Commented
Dec 11, 2013 at 21:16
git update-ref refs/heads/OtherBranch refs/heads/CurrentBranch or git push . CurrentBranch OtherBranch when you could use the much cleaner (IMO) git branch -f OtherBranch CurrentBranch instead? (See my answer on git branch -f below)
Commented
Jan 9, 2014 at 16:33
git branch -f won't work if OtherBranch is currently checked out, whereas git update-ref will.
You can sync with this command your branches at any time
$ git push . CurrentBranch:OtherBranch -f
Also without -f it replace this set of commands
$ git checkout OtherBranch
$ git merge CurrentBranch
$ git checkout CurrentBranch
It can be useful when you don't need commit all your files in CurrentBranch and so you can't switch to another branches.
-f option unless it’s absolutely inevitable. It works well without it in my case.
The other answers are good but a little scary. I'm just providing another option to achieve exactly what was asked for somewhat simply with variations on commands I use every day.
In short, None of these options mess with the current branch you're on or current head.
git branch -C other_branch (force-create other_branch from current HEAD)
To reset other_branch to a branch you're not on...
git branch -C old_branch other_branch (force-create other_branch from old_branch)
To reset other_branch to some_branch on the remote, it's a little bit different...
git pull -f origin old_branch:other_branch (force-pull (which ignores the already-up-to-date stuff) origin/old_branch into local's other_branch)
git branch -f destroys the upstream branch info etc.
Typing a git update-ref command, which principally operates cleanly, is tedious and error-prone. It could create any kind of nonsense file under .git.
As this operation is needed frequently, do it via a rather safe alias or script:
git reset-other OTHERBRANCHNAME TARGETREF
After adding e.g. this alias to your config:
[alias]
reset-other = "!f() { git show -s refs/heads/$1 -- && git update-ref refs/heads/$1 $2 && git show -s $1; }; f"
Add from command-line:
git config --global alias.reset-other "!f() { git show -s refs/heads/$1 -- && git update-ref refs/heads/$1 $2 && git show -s $1; }; f"
When the move succeeded to a wrong target by a slip you already have the SHA printed on the screen to move back ...
git show and git update-ref. They make life much easier, because I don't have to checkout other branch just for updating it from remote and then checkout back to orignal branch. Big thanks!
Commented
Jun 28 at 8:58