How to rebase diverged Git branches in chronological order?

Question

I was working on my dev branch, then made some commits (A, B, C). I switched to the main branch for some reason at this point, did edits on different parts of the same files I worked on before (the reason why I didn't notice that I'm on a different branch), then commited D...

* (4th) D (HEAD -> main)
|
|  * (3rd) C (dev)
|  * (2nd) B
|  * (1st) A
| /
|/
* x
* y
* z

What is the most straightforward way to have A, B, C, and D on one branch (doesn't matter if it's main or 'dev`) in the same order they have been created?

matt · Answer 1 · 2023-08-09T00:17:52.900

1

Like this:

git switch main # start at D
git branch temp # give D a name
git reset --hard @~1 # point main to x
git rebase --onto dev main temp # copy D to after C
git branch -M dev # rename D dev

Result:


   * (4th) D (HEAD -> dev)
   * (3rd) C
   * (2nd) B
   * (1st) A
  /
 /
* x -> main
* y
* z

edited Aug 09 '23 at 00:17

answered Aug 09 '23 at 00:12

matt

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score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 09 '23 at 00:31

1

From main you can just run git rebase dev. That will replay everything you have in main which isn't also in dev (just D according to your diagram) onto the tip of dev.

Your main branch will then be in the state you want and your dev branch will be unchanged.

answered Aug 09 '23 at 00:31

Calum Halpin

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That was my first thought, but then I convinced myself that `A`, `B`, and `C`, will be put on top of `D` for some reason... Thanks! – toraritte Aug 09 '23 at 00:48
1

You'd get that if you ran `git rebase main` from `dev`. – Calum Halpin Aug 09 '23 at 00:55
Yeah, will have to find a mnemonic to remember the right orders. – toraritte Aug 09 '23 at 01:33
1

@toraritte The **real** solution is to **NEVER** run rebase with less than two arguments (`git rebase onto_ref branch_to_be_rebased`). So `git rebase dev main`will always, unconditionally put `main` on top of `dev` regardless of which branch was current. – hlovdal Aug 26 '23 at 20:38

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 09 '23 at 00:03

Use git cherry-pick to move commit D from main to dev by doing the following:

Find and copy the commit hash of D
git checkout dev
git cherry-pick <D_COMMIT_HASH>
Resolve the conflicts
git add <AFFECTED_FILES>
git cherry-pick --continue
At this stage, the commit history looks like the graph below,
```
* (4th) D (main)
|
|  * (new) C_MERGED_WITH_D (HEAD -> dev)
|  * (3rd) C 
|  * (2nd) B
|  * (1st) A
| /
|/
* x
* y
* z
```
because "technically you do not move the commit, but create a new one with the same content, and git remembers this copy when merging", so:
git checkout main
git reset --hard HEAD~1

How to rebase diverged Git branches in chronological order?

3 Answers3