How to Move Commits from `main` to Another Branch in Git

Sometimes we accidentally commit changes to the main branch instead of working on a feature branch. It happens to the best of us! If you've made several commits to main and need to move them to an existing or new branch, here's a step-by-step guide to fix it.

#Scenario

You’ve made 6 commits to main but meant to commit them to a branch (let's call it feature-branch). Now, you want to:

Move those 6 commits to feature-branch.
Reset main to its previous state.

#Step-by-Step Guide

#1. Switch to the Target Branch

If the branch where you want to move the commits already exists, switch to it:

git checkout feature-branch

If the branch doesn’t exist, create it and switch:

git checkout -b feature-branch

#2. Cherry-Pick the Commits

Identify the commits you want to move. Run:

git log --oneline main

This will list recent commits on main. Find the last 6 commits and note their hashes.

Now, cherry-pick the commits onto feature-branch:

git cherry-pick <commit_hash_1> <commit_hash_2> <commit_hash_3> <commit_hash_4> <commit_hash_5> <commit_hash_6>

This applies the commits to feature-branch.

#3. Reset the main Branch

Switch back to main:

git checkout main

Find the commit hash just before the first of the 6 commits you want to move. Then reset main to that point:

git reset --hard <commit_hash_before_the_6_commits>

Warning: The --hard option will discard changes in your working directory, so ensure you’ve moved everything important to feature-branch first.

#4. Push the Changes

Since the history of main has been rewritten, you’ll need to force push it to the remote repository:

git push --force

There you go! You have a "clean" main branch, and your working branch has the commits that you wanted!

Moving commits between branches in Git can seem daunting, but with tools like cherry-pick and reset, you can fix mistakes cleanly. Remember to double-check your commit hashes and use force-push carefully when rewriting history.

Happy coding!