How can I overwrite, not merge, one remote branch into another branch?

Question

I have two branches. Staging and Beta. Staging has code in it ( including files ), that I do not want at all. How can I make Beta completely overwrite Staging, so that none of those files or code are merged from Staging into Beta.

I see some people recommend doing this :

git checkout staging
git merge -s ours beta

But I don't believe the pre-existing files would be a "code conflict" and therefore would not be removed. Am I wrong? If I'm right, how would I accomplish this?

Is `staging` ahead from `beta` ? What is exactly the relationship between your two branches ? — Rerito, Apr 23 '13 at 14:23
They both have some data that is ahead. But I don't want anything on Staging. — Trip, Apr 23 '13 at 14:50

score 31 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 23 '13 at 14:24

31

You can simple delete staging and re-create it based on beta:

git branch -D staging
git checkout beta
git branch staging

answered Apr 23 '13 at 14:24

Daniel Hilgarth

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I thought about this too, but we have not enough information about the branches. I assume that the OP would not have asked this question if he only had to remove his branch – Rerito Apr 23 '13 at 14:27
@Rerito: I disagree. Sometimes people just don't see the simple solution. – Daniel Hilgarth Apr 23 '13 at 14:28
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Removing the branch would destroy its history though? – Trip Apr 23 '13 at 14:53
@Trip: Yes. Isn't that what you want? – Daniel Hilgarth Apr 23 '13 at 14:55
@DanielHilgarth Where did Trip say they wanted the history deleted? – Amber Apr 23 '13 at 14:56
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@Amber: Nowhere. Did I say he did? No. But I inferred it from "Staging has code in it (including files), that I do not want at all". If he is not interested in the files in staging, what use is the history that lead to those files? – Daniel Hilgarth Apr 23 '13 at 14:57
@DanielHilgarth shouldn't the last git branch need a '-b' option? – MaxP Mar 14 '18 at 13:36
@MaxP: `-b` is not a valid option on `git branch`. [Source](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-branch) – Daniel Hilgarth Mar 16 '18 at 07:01

score 25 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 23 '13 at 14:27

25

If you don't care about the old history of staging, you can just recreate it:

git checkout beta
git branch -f staging

If you do care about the old history of staging, then things get more fun:

git checkout staging        # First, merge beta into staging so we have
git merge -s theirs beta    # a merge commit to work with.

git checkout beta           # Then, flip back to beta's version of the files

git reset --soft staging    # Then we go back to the merge commit SHA, but keep 
                            # the actual files and index as they were in beta

git commit --amend          # Finally, update the merge commit to match the
                            # files and index as they were in beta.

answered Apr 23 '13 at 14:27

Amber

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This would delete unwanted files that were recently created on Staging? – Trip Apr 23 '13 at 14:51
@Trip Since it resets the index back to exactly what was in `beta`, anything that wasn't in beta should get deleted as far as Git is concerned. – Amber Apr 23 '13 at 14:55
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Unfortunately `git merge -s theirs` isn't available in newer versions of Git, so this won't work exactly as written. – James Nov 19 '15 at 16:58
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If you have a newer version of git use 'git merge -X theirs' instead of 'git merge -s theirs'. – digitalHound Aug 02 '16 at 17:35

score 9 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 23 '13 at 14:26

9

I suggest you just rename it in case you change your mind.

git branch -m staging staging_oops
git checkout beta
git branch staging

If you really can't stand having that extra branch around:

git branch -D staging_oops

answered Apr 23 '13 at 14:26

Shawn Balestracci

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered May 17 '17 at 06:16

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If the history of staging is not going to be an issue, you can simply do this.

git checkout staging 
git reset --hard beta

Just remember the history of staging will be gone after the above command and staging will have the work of your beta branch.

answered May 17 '17 at 06:16

yardstick17

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How can I overwrite, not merge, one remote branch into another branch?

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