Renaming a branch in GitHub

Question

I just renamed my local branch using

git branch -m oldname newname

but this only renames the local version of the branch. How can I rename

Answer 1

Another way is to rename the following files:

1. Navigate your project directory.
2. Rename .git/refs/head/[branch-name] to .git/refs/head/new-branch-name.
3. Rename .git/refs/remotes/[all-remote-names]/[branch-name] to .git/refs/remotes/[all-remote-names]/new-branch-name.

Rename head and remotes both on your local PC and on origins(s)/remote server(s).

Branch is now renamed (local and remote!)

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Attention

If your current branch-name contains slashes (/) Git will create the directories like so:

current branch-name: "awe/some/branch"

• .git/refs/head/awe/some/branch
• .git/refs/remotes/[all-remote-names]/awe/some/branch

wish branch-name: "new-branch-name"

1. Navigate your project directory.
2. Copy the branch file from .git/refs/*/awe/some/.
3. Put it in .git/refs/head/.
4. Copy the branch file from all of .git/refs/remotes/*/awe/some/.
5. Put them in .git/refs/remotes/*/.
6. Rename all copied branch files to new-branch-name.
7. Check if the directory and file structure now looks like this:

• .git/refs/head/new-branch-name
• .git/refs/remotes/[all-remote-names]/new-branch-name

8. Do the same on all your remote origins/servers (if they exist)

• Info: on remote-servers there are usually no refs/remotes/* directories because you're already on remote-server ;) (Well, maybe in advanced Git configurations it might be possible, but I have never seen that)

Branch is now renamed from awe/some/branch to new-branch-name (local and remote!)

Directories in branch-name got removed.

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Information: This way might not be the best, but it still works for people who might have problems with the other ways