Git - force a rebase

Question

I have a situation where my master branch is way, way behind another branch. I'd like to simply more or less obliterate the old master and have the other branch be, essentially, a new master.

I'm the only one working on this project, and the old master has very little in common with the new/current branch.

Possible duplicate of How to replace master branch in Git, entirely, from another branch? — phd
– phd, Commented Jul 30, 2019 at 19:25

eftshift0 · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-30 18:42:29Z

4

If you don't care about the old history at all:

git checkout master
git reset --hard the-other-branch-i-want-as-master

That will delete all changes you have laying around your working tree so use with care.... if what you would like instead is a new revision where you set your working tree as a new revision on your old master:

git checkout the-other-branch --detach
git reset --soft master
git commit -m "Single change to move old master to a new position where I want it"
git branch -f master
git checkout master

answered Jul 30, 2019 at 18:42

eftshift0

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6 Comments

Romain Valeri Over a year ago

Upvoted for the second solution which is arguably the most useful and elegant way to achieve the goal while keeping a clear history of what's been made.

Major Productions Over a year ago

If I push to origin master, which has the outdated code, will it just accept the revision bomb (for lack of a better term), or will I need to do more to ensure the remote doesn't complain?

eftshift0 Over a year ago

If you reset --hard (or branch -f, as others have suggested), you are rewriting history (revisions on the old branch might disappear)... that will require you to use git push -f.

oklas Over a year ago

By default remote will not accept changes in history. So you will need push force (-f) or rebase new commits on top of original master. But it is not match question and situation where only you are working in repo.

eftshift0 Over a year ago

If you have to keep the old history, then I think you should consider using the reset --soft recipe I provided. You will get one revision on top of your old history with all changes required to get your old branch to look like the new branch (with a single unrelated revision).

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Romain Valeri · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-30 18:42:13Z

2

If so, the simplest way probably is to just move the reference :

git branch -f master <nameOfTheUpToDateBranch>

(doc)

answered Jul 30, 2019 at 18:42

Romain Valeri

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Comments

Markus1189 · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-31 11:03:00Z

2

This is may be achieved with two very simple methods. Either:

  git checkout master
  git reset --hard my-branch

or in any other branch which is not the master branch:

  git branch -f master my-branch

edited Jul 31, 2019 at 11:03

Markus1189

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answered Jul 30, 2019 at 18:42

oklas

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