Question

To move the branch pointer of a checked out branch, one can use the git reset --hard command. But how to move the branch pointer of a not-checked out branch to point at a different commit (keeping all other stuff like tracked remote branch)?

Answer 1

You can do it for arbitrary refs. This is how to move a branch pointer:

git update-ref -m "reset: Reset <branch> to <new commit>" refs/heads/<branch> <commit>

where -m adds a message to the reflog for the branch.

The general form is

git update-ref -m "reset: Reset <branch> to <new commit>" <ref> <commit>

You can pick nits about the reflog message if you like – I believe the branch -f one is different from the reset --hard one, and this isn’t exactly either of them.