How do I rename a local Git branch?

Question

How do I rename a local branch which has not yet been pushed to a remote repository?

Related:

• Rename master branch for both local and remote Git repositories
• How do I rename both a Git local and remote branch name?

Answer 1

To rename the current branch:

git branch -m <newname>

To rename a branch while pointed to any branch:

git branch -m <oldname> <newname>

-m is short for --move.

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To push the local branch and reset the upstream branch:

git push origin -u <newname>

To delete the remote branch:

git push origin --delete <oldname>

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To create a git rename alias:

git config --global alias.rename 'branch -m'

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On Windows or another case-insensitive filesystem, use -M if there are only capitalization changes in the name. Otherwise, Git will throw a "branch already exists" error.

git branch -M <newname>

Answer 2

git branch -m old_branch_name new_branch_name

The above command will change your branch name, but you have to be very careful using the renamed branch, because it will still refer to the old upstream branch associated with it, if any.

If you want to push some changes into master after your local branch is renamed into new_branch_name (example name):

git push origin new_branch_name:master (now changes will go to master branch but your local branch name is new_branch_name)

For more details, see "How to rename your local branch name in Git."

Answer 3

To rename your current branch:

git branch -m <newname>

Answer 4

Here are the steps to rename the branch:

1. Switch to the branch which needs to be renamed
2. git branch -m <new_name>
3. git push origin :<old_name>
4. git push origin <new_name>:refs/heads/<new_name>

EDIT (12/01/2017): Make sure you run command git status and check that the newly created branch is pointing to its own ref and not the older one. If you find the reference to the older branch, you need to unset the upstream using:

git branch --unset-upstream