How can I remove files from one Git branch and add them to a new branch-CodePudding

For context, I am using a repo to manage my dotfiles and want to move OS-specific configuration from main to a new branch so that main is more portable. I will then periodically rebase the new, OS-specific branch on main.

I think I want the history to look something like this

main:       old commit - old commit - remove some files
                                                       \
new branch:                                             add those same files

I don't care about the history all that much, I realise the blames will probably be destroyed by this.

CodePudding user response：

I would do it like this:

git checkout main
git rm the-file
git commit -m "Removing some file"
git checkout the-other-branch
git rebase main
git checkout main~ -- the-file # get the file back from a revision where it existed
# no metadata is brought for that file
git commit -m "Getting back the-file"

Keeping history is trickier:

git checkout main
git rm the-file
git commit -m "Removing the file"
git checkout main~
git merge --no-ff -m "merging removal, but keeping the file" main
# here is where we _really_ get the file back:
git checkout main~ -- the-file
git commit --amend --no-edit
# this merge revision keeps the file _and_ it is already a child of main _without_ the file
# this revision is where the feature branch should be now
git branch temp
git checkout the-feature
git rebase temp
# now..... you have the-feture, which is a descendant of main and _has_ the file.... and history of the file is kept

And best of all? You can merge stuff from master and the file won't be deleted.

CodePudding user response：

You can push these commit files to a new repository in GitHub and remove the files/commits you don't need and just download it.