Alex Rivera | Logout

Move branch pointer to different commit without checkout

Asked 2011-03-29T10:37:03.653
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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)?

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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.

answered 2011-11-21T02:06:00.387

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