Category: Git

I have created a new branch mainly for testing some new functions written in other programming language several weeks ago. Due to the developing purpose, I didn’t put much effort in naming it.

In recent days, when I was reviewing the repository I found that the name of that branch didn’t quite fit its purpose. Therefore I seeked for some ways to rename local branches and remote branches. The ways are shown below.

 

Renaming Local Branches

git branch -m {the branch intended to rename} {new branch name}

This command should rename a local branch. After hitting it, we should push our modification to the server and remove the branch with old name from the server.

git push origin {new branch name} :{the branch to remove}

 

Rename Remote Branches

If the branch we would like to rename doesn’t exist in our computer but on the server, we should duplicate it and give the copy a desired name.

git branch {new branch name} origin/{the branch intended to rename}

Push our modification to the server. And the new branch with the desired name should appear in the repository.

git push origin {new branch name}

Since the old branch is not used anymore, we remove it from the server.

git push origin :{the branch to remove}

 

Well done. Now the branches are renamed into the desire names.