Move existing, uncommitted work to a new branch in Git

I started some work on a new feature and after coding for a bit, I decided this feature should be on its own branch.

How do I move the existing uncommitted changes to a new branch and reset my current one?

I want to reset my current branch while preserving existing work on the new feature.

Update 2020 / Git 2.23

Git 2.23 adds the new switch subcommand in an attempt to clear some of the confusion that comes from the overloaded usage of checkout (switching branches, restoring files, detaching HEAD, etc.)

Starting with this version of Git, replace the checkout command with:

git switch -c <new-branch>

The behavior is identical and remains unchanged.

Before Update 2020 / Git 2.23

Use the following:

git checkout -b <new-branch>

This will leave your current branch as it is, create and checkout a new branch and keep all your changes. You can then stage changes in files to commit with:

git add <files>

and commit to your new branch with:

git commit -m "<Brief description of this commit>"

The changes in the working directory and changes staged in index do not belong to any branch yet. This changes the branch where those modifications would end in.

You don't reset your original branch, it stays as it is. The last commit on <old-branch> will still be the same. Therefore you checkout -b and then commit.

Alternatively:

1. Save current changes to a temp stash:

   $ git stash

2. Create a new branch based on this stash, and switch to the new branch:

   $ git stash branch <new-branch> stash@{0}

Tip: use tab key to reduce typing the stash name.

If you have been making commits on your main branch while you coded, but you now want to move those commits to a different branch, this is a quick way:

1. Copy your current history onto a new branch, bringing along any uncommitted changes too:

    git checkout -b <new-feature-branch>
   

2. Now force the original "messy" branch to roll back: (without switching to it)

    git branch -f <previous-branch> <earlier-commit-id>
   

   For example:

    git branch -f master origin/master
   

   or if you had made 4 commits:

    git branch -f master HEAD~4
   

Warning: git branch -f master origin/master will reset the tracking information for that branch. So if you have configured your master branch to push to somewhere other than origin/master then that configuration will be lost.

Warning: If you rebase after branching, there is a danger that some commits may be lost, which is described here. The only way to avoid that is to create a new history using cherry-pick. That link describes the safest fool-proof method, although less convenient. (If you have uncommitted changes, you may need to git stash at the start and git stash pop at the end.)

The common scenario is the following: I forgot to create the new branch for the new feature, and was doing all the work in the old feature branch. I have commited all the "old" work to the master branch, and I want my new branch to grow from the "master". I have not made a single commit of my new work. Here is the branch structure: "master"->"Old_feature"

git stash 
git checkout master
git checkout -b "New_branch"
git stash apply

If you commit it, you could also cherry-pick the single commit ID. I do this often when I start work in master, and then want to create a local branch before I push up to my origin/.

git cherry-pick <commitID>

There is alot you can do with cherry-pick, as described here, but this could be a use-case for you.

Option 1 (with an existing branch)

git stash (from main/any-branch)
git checkout your-existing-branch
git stash apply 

Option 2 (creating a new branch)

git switch -c your-new-branch

For those using Visual Studio Community 2022 (and possibly earlier versions) when you have uncommitted changes then create a new branch, you'll see a dialog like this:

Just select the first option Bring the changes to '[your-new-branch-name]' and click Continue checkout. The new branch will be created and you can proceed to commit your changes there.

There is actually a really easy way to do this with GitHub Desktop now that I don't believe was a feature before.

All you need to do is switch to the new branch in GitHub Desktop, and it will prompt you to leave your changes on the current branch (which will be stashed), or to bring your changes with you to the new branch. Just choose the second option, to bring the changes to the new branch. You can then commit as usual.

This may be helpful for all using tools for GIT

Command

Switch branch - it will move your changes to new-branch. Then you can commit changes.

 $ git checkout -b <new-branch>

TortoiseGIT

Right-click on your repository and then use TortoiseGit->Switch/Checkout

SourceTree

Use the "Checkout" button to switch branch. You will see the "checkout" button at the top after clicking on a branch. Changes from the current branch will be applied automatically. Then you can commit them.

This is the only answer that tells you to use git stash -k, which you will need...

if you already spent an hour with git add -p

and then decided you want to test what you added to the index before doing the actual commit. In that case do not use plain git stash!

Instead do:

git stash -k

That keeps the index and removes the rest that is still in the working directory and wasn't added to the index yet. Exactly what you want.

Now you can try to compile/test and commit. I.e.

make
git commit -m 'Yay!'

Then get back the uncommitted changes with

git stash pop

If you discover that it does NOT compile however, then making changes and adding those also the index and committing that might confuse git stash pop. It isn't that good when it comes to merging. In that case you probably should just commit anyway; thus:

make
git commit -m 'Grrrr'

Then create a new branch,

git switch -c tmpbranch

do your work there (changing code, doing testing and more commits)

/* blood sweat and tears */

Once everything works commit it to the new branch

commit -a -m 'Finally!'

go back to the old branch and then do the git stash pop with the same working directory as where you was when you pushed to the stash.

git checkout youknowwhatbranchyouwereonright
git stash pop

Commit that too, otherwise you can't merge the tmpbranch. Then merge the temporary branch that you created.

git commit -a -m 'Still working on this.'
git merge tmpbranch
/* fix collisions and commit */

Now you can do a rebase to put the 'Still working on this' at the top and squash/fixup the rest into a single comment. For example

git rebase -i

might give you:

pick 540623a Grrr
pick a8589d3 Still working on this.
pick d3b602c Finally

Then change that to:

reword 540623a Grrr
fixup d3b602c Finally
pick a8589d3 Still working on this.

And finally undo the last commit (the 'Still working on this')

git reset HEAD~1

I used @Robin answer & listing all that I did,

git status                               <-- review/list uncommitted changes
git stash                                <-- stash uncommitted changes
git stash branch <new-branch> stash@{1}  <-- create a branch from stash
git add .                                <-- add local changes
git status                               <-- review the status; ready to commit
git commit -m "local changes ..."        <-- commit the changes
git branch --list                        <-- see list of branches incl the one created above
git status                               <-- nothing to commit, working tree (new-branch) is clean
git checkout <old-branch>                <-- switch back

! If the repo has more than one stash, see which one to apply to the new-branch:

git stash list  
  stash@{0}: WIP on ...  
  stash@{1}: WIP on ...

and inspect the individual stash by,

git stash show stash@{1}

Or inspect all stashes at once:

git stash list -p

3 Steps to Commit your changes

Suppose you have created a new branch on GitHub with the name feature-branch.

FETCH

    git pull --all         Pull all remote branches
    git branch -a          List all branches now

Checkout and switch to the feature-branch directory. You can simply copy the branch name from the output of branch -a command above

git checkout -b feature-branch

VALIDATE

Next use the git branch command to see the current branch. It will show feature-branch with * In front of it

git branch         

COMMIT

git add .   add all files
git commit -m "Rafactore code or use your message"

Take update and the push changes on the origin server

 git pull origin feature-branch
 git push origin feature-branch

You can also create bash aliases to do all of this.

This will create new commands...

• gitco <branch> - checks out the specified branch, taking your current changes with you
• gitconew <new branch name> - creates a new branch with the specified name (branched off of master) taking your current changes with you

Here are the steps to set up the aliases...

1. Add the following to ~/.bash_profile

gitco ()
{
  git stash && git checkout $1 && git stash apply
}

gitconew ()
{
  git stash && git checkout master && git checkout -b $1 && git stash apply
}

2. Run source ~/.bash_profile to reload the profile

Now you can run the gitco and gitconew alias commands.

Here is some more info on bash aliases -> https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-create-bash-aliases/

For me, moving "uncommitted existing work" to a new branch that does not yet exist (the original question) required moving both changes not staged for commit as well as untracked files. The following worked for me:

git stash -u
git switch -c <new-branch>
git stash pop

Where git stash is used to move the changes, with the '-u' flag (include untracked) moving changes that are staged for commit, as well as those that are not.

Where git switch -c creates a new branch and switches to it (as described in other answers).

And, where git stash pop then applies the stashed changes to the new branch.