I have a git workflow scenario question and have provided the "current" and "desired" branch structures, but I don't know the correct commands to get to the desired state.
Current:
a -- b --> Branch1 (there are no commits after b)
\
\
c -- d -- e --> Branch2
I want to rebase or reset head (not merge, as I want a straight line history in log) such that Branch 1 looks like this:
Desired:
a -- b -- c -- d -- e --> Branch1
\
\
c -- d -- e --> Branch2 (this branch may be removed)
I realise that the head of Branch2 must now be the head of Branch1, but don't know if the following commands will ensure changes c and d will also become part of Branch1 or if the new commit history will look like a -- b -- e:
git checkout Branch1
git reset Branch2
Thank you for your time!
Since Branch1 has no commits after b, you can simply fast-forward it to Branch2:
git checkout Branch1
git merge --ff-only Branch2
--ff-only forces a fast-forward and forbids a merge commit. See man git-merge#ff.
After the fast-forward, your tree will look like this:
a -- b -- c -- d -- e --> Branch1, Branch2
Branch2 can safely be removed. This whole operation is strictly equivalent to removing Branch1 and renaming Branch2 to Branch1. Remember, for git a branch is simply an alias/pointer to a commit.