Coping commits from one branch to another

    Hello all!

    My question is how can I use git-rebase -- or a similar command --
to actually copy the commits from one branch to another.

    For example I have cloned the linux kernel repository and I have
the following branches:
    -- v2.6.22-stable
    -- v2.6.23-local
    -- v2.6.23-stable
    -- v2.6.23-local

    The difference between v2.6.x-stable and v2.6.x-local are just a
few minor patches (which are not in the default kernel tree) and some
script files added to make the compilation and deployment easier for
my setup. Thus v2.6.x-local is an ancestor of v2.6.x-stable. Now when
v2.6.24 will arrive I would like to "copy" the commits from
v2.6.23-local to v2.6.24-local.

    One solution would be to use:
    git rebase --onto v2.6.24-local v2.6.23-stable v2.6.23-local

    But this will not copy the commits, but actually move them. (And I
do not see anything about this case in the git rebase documentation,
or pointers to other commands similar to rebase.)

    So how should this be done?

    Thanks,
    Ciprian Craciun.

    P.S.: The simplest solution would be to obtain the list of commits
and apply them with cherry-pick... But this is not that straight
forward...

Hi,

On Tue, 22 Jan 2008, Ciprian Dorin Craciun wrote:

Very easy.  Do this before rebasing:

	git checkout -b v2.6.24-local v2.6.23-local

then proceed with

	git rebase --onto 2.6.24-stable v2.6.23-stable

Hth, Dscho

On Tuesday 22 January 2008, Ciprian Dorin Craciun wrote:

Actually, you're pretty much on the right track, already. git-rebase does in fact _copy_ the commits onto the target branch. It's just that it also moves the ref (i.e. branch name) along, so that the old commits are no longer reachable. Consider the following:

	git checkout -b v2.6.24-local_new v2.6.23-local
	git rebase --onto v2.6.24-local v2.6.23-stable

This checks out a new branch (v2.6.24-local_new) that initially points at the same commit as v2.6.23-local. We then rebase all the commits between v2.6.23-stable and v2.6.24-local_new (which is the same as v2.6.23-local) on top of the existing v2.6.24-local branch. v2.6.24-local_new will move along and point to the last commit _after_ rebase, but you haven't moved v2.6.23-local in the process, so it still points to the corresponding last commit _before_ rebase.

Have fun!

...Johan