Git - Moving Pushed Commits to a Different Branch

Question

My boss decided recently to try out an outsourcing group \"for increased capacity\" as we modify an existing application to add new features. Despite my concern that the gro

Answer 1

Getting the branch is easy:

git branch their-branch master
git reset --hard master $SHA1_OF_C
git push --force $SHARED_REPO_REMOTE

This will rewrite history; it creates a new branch that is equivalent to the current master branch named their-branch, then resets your local master to point to a random SHA1 (...or branch, or tag, or whatever), and finally forcibly updates the remote repository branch to match your local branch.

That delivers exactly the situation you want.

Caveats: this will rewrite history, and can screw up anyone who has built off the old master. Watch out for merge problems following.

No rebasing desired or required.

(As an aside, I suggest you either give them a staging repository, or get them to use git send-email, or use GitHub pull requests, or otherwise prevent them pushing to master until they get it right. Which, based on your summary, might be some time away.)

Answer 2

Have them make a branch off of each bit of work from the same starting point for each ticket they work on. Have them merge the work to a RC branch. You can merge your work to the RC branch. This will allow you to test often. See the workflow we have here:

https://plus.google.com/109096274754593704906/posts/R4qkeyRadLR

Let me know if you have any questions about it. It works well for us.