I want to backup local, uncommitted changes to the remote repository in order to backup the changes (in case the local hard drive breaks etc.)
(In TFSC, I would have just "shelved" the changes into a shelveset (which "lives" on the TF server))
What I tried:
At this point of time, my changes have been saved on the remote repository (meaning that I could recover the information in case of a broken local hard drive)
But now I have the following problem: Both in the "master" branch as well as in the "backup_2021-02-13" branch, I cannot see the previously pending changes: I can't see them on the backup branch because they have already been committed (yes, the changes are there, but already committed). I can't see them on the master branch because there, these changes do not exist at all.
But I want to continue working as if the backup process never happened (with all uncommitted changes still being uncommitted).
So, what I did was, I merged the changes from the backup branch to the master branch (no-commit, ff-only, squash). This way, I have my uncommitted changes in the master branch as uncommitted changes, as it was before any backup work.
But I doubt that this is the normal way of doing this.
So, what is the correct (and easiest) way to backup local uncommitted changes to a remote repository, but at the same time leaving the current (master) branch as it is (with all the uncommitted changes still being uncommitted)?
Your process is ok. After switching to master you just need to restore changes committed in the backup branch:
git checkout master
git checkout backup_2021-02-13 -- .
The 2nd command restores all file from branch backup_2021-02-13. Continue working.