Question

I’m sure this is a simple thing that has been asked and answered, but I don’t know what terms to search for. I have this:

    /--master--X--Y
A--B
    \--C--D--E

Where I commited C, D, and E (locally only) on a branch, but then I realized that D and E are really independent of C. I want to move C to its own branch, and keep D and E for later. That is, I want this:

                   /--C
    /--master--X--Y
A--B
    \--D--E

How do I yank C out from under D and E?

Answer 1

You can use git cherry-pick to grab C, and put it on Y. Assuming Y exists as the tip of a branch called branch-Y, you can run the following commands:

git checkout branch-Y
git cherry-pick C

So now C is on top of Y. But D and E also still contain C (cherry-picking doesn’t move a commit, it just makes a copy of it). You’ll have to rebase D and E on top of B. Assuming E is the tip of branch-E and B is branch-B, you can run the following commands:

git checkout branch-E
git rebase --interactive branch-B

This will open up an interactive rebase session. Just remove commit C entirely, and leave D and E intact. You’ll then have D and E rebased on top of B without C.