Is it possible to move files or file changes between branches?

Question

Summary: I forgot to switch branches when developing and would like to move the files/changes to the appropriate branch.

Details: I have two files A and B which are initially in master. I then created a branch branch1 to make some breaking changes in file A.

While developing these changes I also modified B and created a file C. The problem is that I now realize I made a mistake with branching and that

• the file B should be in its own branch2 (which does not exist),
• file C belongs in master.

All of them are now commited in branch1.

The commits were pushed to a remote repository but it does not matter that much, I can have the other developer clone the repo (as opposed to fetch).

What is the general methodology to recover in such a case, ie. to move files or changes between branches?

Answer 1

A simple solution is, from where you are on branch1:

• create branch2 (git checkout -b branch2), and remove C. Add, commit, and push
• get back to master (git checkout master), and copy C from branch1 (git show branch1:path/to/C >path/to/C). Add, commit and push.
• finally, get back on branch1, remove the extra files, add, commit and push.

That way, no merge, no history rewrite, not even a revert, just some additional commits pushed to remote to cleanup the current situation.