Git Replace Branch with Another - Shell/Bash

As a developer, you may sometimes need to replace one branch with another in Git. This can be useful if you're working on a feature branch and need to switch to a different branch temporarily, or if you want to completely replace a branch with a different one.

In this guide, we'll show you how to replace one branch with another using the Git command line interface in a Shell/Bash environment.

Pre-requisites

Before you start, make sure you have Git installed on your system. You can check if Git is already installed by running the following command in your Shell/Bash terminal:

git --version

If Git is not installed, you can download it from the official Git website.

Step 1: Create a new local branch

Create a new local branch based on the branch you want to replace.

git checkout -b new-branch old-branch

Step 2: Delete the old branch

Delete the old branch using the "-D" option. This option will force Git to delete the branch even if it has unmerged changes.

git branch -D old-branch

Step 3: Rename the new branch to the old branch name

Rename the new branch to the old branch name so that it replaces the old branch.

git branch -m old-branch

Step 4: Push changes to remote repository (Optional)

If you want to push the changes to the remote repository, you can use the following command:

git push --force origin old-branch

Note that the "--force" option is necessary to overwrite the old branch on the remote repository.

Conclusion

In this guide, we've shown you how to replace one Git branch with another in a Shell/Bash environment. This can be a useful technique for switching between branches, or for completely replacing a branch with a different one. Remember to use caution when deleting branches with unmerged changes, and always make sure to push changes to the remote repository if necessary.