How to move the current working branch to master branch in git

Question

I have currently one of the project it contain more branches. master branch not yet merger long time. So i want switched to master with latest code.

Can you please give me necessary commands and steps.

Let me re-frame my question.

I am working in a project with different branches. The latest changes were in some branch other than master. Now my requirement is: is there a way to move the current working branch to master without merging it with master, to avoid conflicts?

You might have to clarify your question, I'm afraid, in order for anyone to be able to help. Would I be right in understanding that you're working on a repository with many branches, but those have not been merged back to the `master` branch for some time, and now you want to merge the work from one or more of those branches into `master`? — Mark Longair, Aug 23 '11 at 13:40
I don't understand what you mean with "moving" the branch to master? Do you want to work on the master branch? Than "git checkout master" should do the trick. Also, this seem to be a pure git question, you should probably remove the ruby-on-rails tag. — Droggl, Aug 25 '11 at 08:46
If your code creates conflicts with master, then any code movement must fix these conflicts. This *branch code move to another* in GIT is called *merge*. — Justinas, Jul 16 '19 at 08:35

score 80 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 16 '19 at 08:32

80

If you want to have in master exactly the same files state as in other_branch and save history - do the following (and note the period at the end):

git checkout master
git checkout other_branch .

Now you will have a full copy of other_branch in current master (it is softer than reset), not yet committed. Then make a regular commit:

git add --all
git commit -m "* copy other_branch to master working tree"

Note: untracked (unindexed) files (directories) from other_branch will remain, if they are not tracked by master. To remove those untracked files (directories):

git clean -fd

See How to remove local (untracked) files from the current Git working tree? for more details.

edited Jul 16 '19 at 08:32

mahemoff

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answered Aug 25 '11 at 09:46

radistao

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Looks like this is not deleting folders for me. – Evgenia Karunus Jan 19 '18 at 05:46
you mean empty directories? – radistao Jan 19 '18 at 10:06
Nope, nonempty folder from master is staying for some reason, even though it's absent in other_branch. – Evgenia Karunus Jan 19 '18 at 10:44
then likely additionally you have to do `git clean -fd`, see https://stackoverflow.com/a/64966/907576 – radistao Jan 19 '18 at 10:52
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Thanks. That worked for me but history is not copied to master. – radar Oct 23 '19 at 13:08
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> but history is not copied to master. This is a different story - `rebase` is your choice. – radistao Oct 23 '19 at 14:51
Use only if you know what you're doing. Seems to work, but seems risky. Be careful. – tremendows Oct 25 '19 at 08:31

score 28 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 23 '11 at 13:40

28

Do you want to merge a 'develop' branch into master?

git checkout master
git merge develop

Or do you want to merge the changes from master into your development branch?

git checkout develop
git merge master

answered Aug 23 '11 at 13:40

Grad van Horck

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Mark Longair · Answer 3 · 2011-08-25T09:00:44.313

Firstly, I would try just merging it to master and seeing if there really are lots of conflicts - git's merging is great at only marking genuine conflicts. If you make sure that your git status is clean before you start, and you find that there are too many conflicts to deal with, you can just go back with:

git reset --merge

However, if you just want to make your current master the same as your other branch, you could do that with:

git checkout master
git reset --hard other-branch

However, that's generally a bad idea since:

You're throwing away all the work on your master branch. Perhaps you might want that history later? (You could always "back up" your master branch with git branch old-master master beforehand.)
You're rewriting the history of the master branch, so if you've ever shared this branch with anyone the results will be confusing for both of you.
git reset --hard should always be used with caution, since it will throw away all uncommitted changes you have.

score 11 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 23 '11 at 13:42

11

If I understand your English correctly, you don't want to merge your changes back into master, but just reset master to point to the latest commit in your currently checked out branch? To do this, use:

git branch -f master

answered Aug 23 '11 at 13:42

Karl Bielefeldt

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I'm not the original requestor, but this is exactly what I needed, and I think it speaks to the intent of the original requestor – Happyblue Apr 26 '22 at 03:36

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 23 '11 at 13:43

you need to merge your current branch into the master branch. the way i do it is:

1) git fetch origin  # get all branches from server  
2) git rebase master # update your local master to the origin master, in case master has changed upstream
3) git checkout <branch>  # go to your branch
4) git rebase master # rebase your branch to master; applies your branch's changes ontop of the master, where it diverged
5) git checkout master # go back to master
6) git merge <branch> # merge your branch into master.  since you rebased, this should be trivial
7) git push # push your master upstream

the second point, i think, it'd be better after a git checkout master — andymnc, Mar 02 '23 at 18:24

score 4 · Answer 6 · edited Jun 24 '23 at 11:27

4

If you want to copy the files from the branch to master do execute following commands.

git checkout master
git checkout x_branch .

(with period)
git add --all
git commit -m "copy all from x_branch to master"
git push -u origin master

edited Jun 24 '23 at 11:27

mirekphd

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answered Sep 26 '16 at 10:28

Chitra Lekha

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Replace 4 step with 5 – Zhasulan Berdibekov Apr 28 '20 at 17:48

score 1 · Answer 7 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

If you want to take some commits from branch to master, you could use cherry-picking.

This takes only certain commits from branch to master, but is – of course – not guaranteed that no conflicts occur.

See my answer to Managing hotfixes when develop branch is very different from master?

However, if you want to take all commits from branch into master, you won't get around merging and resolve conflicts (unless you git reset --hard other-branch the master branch as described – and discouraged – by Mark).

B. Alvey · Answer 8 · 2019-12-02T02:07:07.173

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In IntelliJ at least, you can do the following:

Checkout the branch to merge into master.
VCS->Git->Merge Changes
Select master
Change the strategy to "ours"
Select "No fast forward."
Click "merge"
Commit (may not be needed)
Push

This turns master into your current branch. The history for master is preserved. I'm sure there is a git command line equivalent.

edited Dec 02 '19 at 02:07

answered Dec 02 '19 at 01:06

B. Alvey

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score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 23 '11 at 13:42

0

If you want to merge the working branch into the master, you can also use rebase which is a bit cleaner.

git checkout master
git rebase <working branch>

answered Aug 23 '11 at 13:42

Sammy S.

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But not recommended for branches, that are already pushed to another remote repository, or branches, frim which other branches were started. – dunni Aug 23 '11 at 13:45
You're right. But I assumed, he wanted to do a fast forward for the master branch – Sammy S. Aug 23 '11 at 13:49

score -5 · Answer 10 · answered Dec 05 '16 at 22:04

-5

Maybe it's not so clean, but it works for me

git pull #to get all changes
switch to my_branch
copy all files tmp dir
switch to master
remove all files in master
copy files from tmp dir
commit

answered Dec 05 '16 at 22:04

DantaliaN

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that doesn't sound a git way to do it :( – superandrew Jan 26 '17 at 10:59
but it's simple)) – DantaliaN Jan 27 '17 at 20:38

How to move the current working branch to master branch in git

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