Git: “Not currently on any branch.” Is there an easy way to get back on a branch, while keeping the changes?

Question

So I\'ve done some work in the repository and when I\'m about to commit I realize that I\'m not currently on any branch.

This happens a lot when working with submodu

Answer 1

One way to end up in this situation is after doing a rebase from a remote branch. In this case, the new commits are pointed to by HEAD but master does not point to them -- it's pointing to wherever it was before you rebased the other branch.

You can make this commit your new master by doing:

git branch -f master HEAD
git checkout master

This forcibly updates master to point to HEAD (without putting you on master) then switches to master.