git - move branch "tag" to other commit?

Question

Since a branch is more or less only a tag, that moves automatically to the new commit, I wonder if I can modify this "tag".

Example:

             master  
A -- B -- C -- D

git checkout master would be the same as git checkout D

Can I change master to point to commit B?

   master
A -- B -- C -- D

git checkout master would now be the same as git checkout B

Use Case

Imagine someone has pushed one single commit to the online repository. When I do git fetch, I get this commit local, but my master branch still points to the commit before, while origin/master points to the new commit. I just want to move the local master branch to the same commit as origin/master points to.

So, I wouldn't have to merge.

Thanks for your help

Answer 1

To move the branch Tag to commit B you can do the following:

git branch -f master B

Using git branch instead of git reset --hard even preserves your working directory.