Git – How to Rename a Remote Branch

git

I have created a local branch X that at some point I pushed to remote server (origin)

git push origin X

I realized it's a bad idea to have branch named X and want it to be called Y
The problem is that I've already pushed the branch to the repository.

Is it safe to delete it from the server and push it under a new name like this ?

push origin :X

// 'clone ' the branch under a new name locally ( X-> Y)

push origin Y

What will happen to the people that already fetched from the server. Say that they already
made a branch locally based on the old X name BUT they did not make any changes locally or pushed them to the server for the old X branch.

Best Answer

other people will keep a pointer to branch X (as origin/X) in their repository until they run git remote prune origin. it's left as a stale branch

when fetching/pulling they will get a second point to (newly created) branch Y (as origin/Y)

branching and merging is not affected by this.

so, as long as all commits are still reachable from your branch, renaming is fine.

Renaming local and remote

# Rename the local branch to the new name
git branch -m <old_name> <new_name>

# Delete the old branch on remote - where <remote> is, for example, origin
git push <remote> --delete <old_name>

# Or shorter way to delete remote branch [:]
git push <remote> :<old_name>

# Prevent git from using the old name when pushing in the next step.
# Otherwise, git will use the old upstream name instead of <new_name>.
git branch --unset-upstream <new_name>

# Push the new branch to remote
git push <remote> <new_name>

# Reset the upstream branch for the new_name local branch
git push <remote> -u <new_name>

Renaming Only remote branch

Credit: ptim

# In this option, we will push the branch to the remote with the new name
# While keeping the local name as is
git push <remote> <remote>/<old_name>:refs/heads/<new_name> :<old_name>

Important note:

When you use the git branch -m (move), Git is also updating your tracking branch with the new name.

git remote rename legacy legacy

git remote rename is trying to update your remote section in your configuration file. It will rename the remote with the given name to the new name, but in your case, it did not find any, so the renaming failed.

But it will not do what you think; it will rename your local configuration remote name and not the remote branch.

Note Git servers might allow you to rename Git branches using the web interface or external programs (like Sourcetree, etc.), but you have to keep in mind that in Git all the work is done locally, so it's recommended to use the above commands to the work.

Git – How to Rename a Git Remote

$ git remote rename <old-name> <new-name>

So, for this example:

$ git remote rename heroku production

Useful docs here: https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/getting-started-with-git/managing-remote-repositories#renaming-a-remote-repository

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Git – How to Rename a Branch (Local and Remote)

Renaming local and remote

Renaming Only remote branch

Important note:

Git – How to Rename a Git Remote

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