How to completely replace master with another branch in Azure DevOps

Question

Using Azure DevOps, there is a repo with valid code being maintained in a secondary branch. However, the master branch is multiple years out of date.

I want to obliterate the contents of master and overwrite it with the contents of the secondary branch.

I understand that mishandling this can cause serious namespaces issues and I would like to avoid that.

What method would you recommend for completely replacing master with a secondary branch in Azure DevOps?

This is a "TFS GIT" repo. A GIT repo running inside Azure Devops. — nuprap, Mar 07 '19 at 17:05
If you don't want to keep the files in master anyway, I would just go for the easy way and [rename the branches](https://stackoverflow.com/a/2862606/3652378) — Melissa, Mar 08 '19 at 14:10
@Melisco - That works for me, but will it cause any longterm issues? — nuprap, Mar 11 '19 at 13:49

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

7

Clone the repo to your local machine.

git clone {repo url}
Go to the local repo and move to the secondary branch.

git checkout {secondary branch}
Copy all the content - Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C.
Move back to master branch.

git checkout master
Paste the files (and replace existing files) Ctrl+V.
Commit the changes.

git add .

git commit -m "update master"
Push the changes to Azure DevOps.

git push

Now the master branch updated with the content of the secondary branch.

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

answered Mar 07 '19 at 21:43

Shayki Abramczyk

I was considering this... but since the master branch is stale by several years, will this cause any issues when master is updated with the secondary branch? Based on what I read, I should consider using the -f flag if I chose this method... is that correct? – nuprap Mar 11 '19 at 13:48
1

clone the repo, copy him for backup, try what I suggested, succeed? good. not? try `-f` :) – Shayki Abramczyk Mar 11 '19 at 14:18
2

Step 3 should be "copy all files except the .git folder to a temp location Step 4 should be "Copy all the files from step 3 from the temp location and paste them over existing files. Changed behaviour in Windows makes this procedure do nothing if you do not use a physical temp location – Henrov Jun 18 '21 at 09:17
1

is this really the best option? only option? because you'd still have all that history of old commits, I would like to take a snapshot in time, before a series of bad commits, and promote that new master. – nagates Feb 24 '22 at 15:43

1 Answers1