To change the name of the name of a Git branch, use using the command below: git branch -m <old> <new>. This will change the name and format of the Git branch you are currently viewing to the one you have specified. If you want to rename a branch, you don’t have to mention the old name.
How to rename a Git branch
Ever been in a situation where the branch name is irrelevant? Have you noticed a typo in the names of one of your branches that you just can’t stop thinking about? There’s good news for you: Git allows you to rename a branch.
In this tutorial, we’re going to talk about how to rename a Git branch. We’ll walk though an example of renaming a local and remote branch to help you get started.
Without further ado, let’s begin!
Git Branches
Branch are separate lines of development within a Git repository. They are used for separating your code. You can create branches to work on different parts of the project without having any impact on the main line of development.
What happens if a branch’s name is incorrect? Is it possible to delete it? No. Although Git can be annoying at times, it does have a method to rename branches. Learn more about Git branches in our git branch tutorial.
Git Rename Branch
You can rename a branch using the git branch command. To rename a branch, run git branch -m <old> <new>. “old” is your branch name, while “new” is your new branch name.
Here’s the syntax for the Git branch rename command:
git branch -m <old> <new>
Git Renames Local Branch Example
Let’s rename the Git branch. The syntax for renaming branches varies depending on whether you’re viewing the branch you wish to rename.
You only need to give the branch a new name if you wish to rename it. Otherwise, you will need the name of your branch and the new branch name.
Let’s suppose we want to change the name of the branch we are looking at. First, you’ve got to navigate to the branch that you want to rename. You can do this by using the git checkout command:
git checkout fix bug-22
This command allows you to view the branch fixbug-22. If you want to see the master branch, you can run “git checkoutmaster”.
We’ve just noticed that the fix-bug-22 branch is actually for fixing bug 23, not bug 22. Therefore, we want to change our branch’s name. This mistake can be rectified by using git branch with the -m flag. This command allows us to rename the branch.
git branch -m fix-bug-23<
Now, our branch name is fix-bug-23. The git branch command can be used to check if the branch’s name has changed.
git branch
Our command returns
* fix-bug-23 Master
You can see that our “fix bug-22” branch in Git has been renamed into “fix big-23”.
You could skip the initial step of moving to a new branch. You can do this by specifying the name of the branch you want to rename using the git branch command -m. This allows us to skip the navigation to a branch and rename it without having to do so. Consider this command:
git branch-m fix–bug-22 fix–bug-23
This command will rename our fix-22 branch to fixbug-23 regardless of which branch we are currently viewing. We just renamed the local branch.
Rename Branch Git: Take Out Branch
If you want to rename remote branches, you need to push a new branch to a distant repository. Remote branches are those that are associated with remote repositories or other locations.
First, rename a branch following the instructions in the previous example. Next, push the new branch into your remote repository using git push:
git push origin -u fix-bug-23
This adds the branch fix-bug-23 to the remote repository with the name “origin”.
The new branch will appear when you view your remote repository. The old branch will remain visible. You can fix this by deleting the old branch from your remote repository with the git command line.
git push origin --delete fix-bug-22
This will delete fix-bug-22’s branch from your remote repository. Once you run that command, you’ll have a new branch called fix-bug-23 on your master, and no branch called fix-bug-22.
Conclusion
You can use the git-branche -m command to rename a git git branch. The syntax for renaming a git branch is: git branch -m <old> <new>. If you are renaming a branch that you are currently viewing, you don’t have to specify an old name.
Developers can have remote and local Git branches to keep their code separated from the main project version. Branching is useful because developers can work on multiple features or bug reports without having the main line of development changed.
Are you interested in learning more about Git? Check out our complete guide to Git. How to Learn Git guide This section contains top Git resources and courses.
