Create a branch in Git from another branch

I have two branches: master and dev

I want to create a "feature branch" from the dev branch.

Currently on the branch dev, I do:

$ git checkout -b myfeature dev

... (some work)

$ git commit -am "blablabla"
$ git push origin myfeature

But, after visualizing my branches, I got:

--**master**
------0-----0-----0-----0-----0
------------------------**dev**----**myfeature**

I mean that the branch seems ff merged, and I don't understand why...

What I'm doing wrong?

Can you explain me please how you branch off from another branch and push back to the remote repository for the feature branch?

All that in a branching model like the one described here.

If you like the method in the link you've posted, have a look at Git Flow.

It's a set of scripts he created for that workflow.

But to answer your question:

$ git checkout -b myFeature dev

Creates MyFeature branch off dev. Do your work and then

$ git commit -am "Your message"

Now merge your changes to dev without a fast-forward

$ git checkout dev
$ git merge --no-ff myFeature

Now push changes to the server

$ git push origin dev
$ git push origin myFeature

And you'll see it how you want it.

If you want create a new branch from any of the existing branches in Git, just follow the options.

First change/checkout into the branch from where you want to create a new branch. For example, if you have the following branches like:

• master
• dev
• branch1

So if you want to create a new branch called "subbranch_of_b1" under the branch named "branch1" follow the steps:

1. Checkout or change into "branch1"

   git checkout branch1
   

2. Now create your new branch called "subbranch_of_b1" under the "branch1" using the following command.

   git checkout -b subbranch_of_b1 branch1
   

   The above will create a new branch called subbranch_of_b1 under the branch branch1 (note that branch1 in the above command isn't mandatory since the HEAD is currently pointing to it, you can precise it if you are on a different branch though).

3. Now after working with the subbranch_of_b1 you can commit and push or merge it locally or remotely.

push the subbranch_of_b1 to remote

 git push origin subbranch_of_b1 

Create a Branch

• Create branch when master branch is checked out. Here commits in master will be synced to the branch you created.

  $ git branch branch1

• Create branch when branch1 is checked out . Here commits in branch1 will be synced to branch2

  $ git branch branch2

Checkout a Branch

git checkout command switch branches or restore working tree files

• $ git checkout branchname

Renaming a Branch

• $ git branch -m branch1 newbranchname

Delete a Branch

• $ git branch -d branch-to-delete
• $ git branch -D branch-to-delete ( force deletion without checking the merged status )

Create and Switch Branch

• $ git checkout -b branchname

Branches that are completely included

• $ git branch --merged

************************** Branch Differences [ git diff branch1..branch2 ] ************************

• $ git diff master..branch1

• $ git diff --color-words branch1..branch2

To create a branch from another branch in your local directory you can use following command.

git checkout -b <sub-branch> branch

For Example:

• name of the new branch to be created 'XYZ'
• name of the branch ABC under which XYZ has to be created

git checkout -b XYZ ABC

Various ways to create a branch in git from another branch:

This answer adds some additional insight, not already present in the existing answers, regarding just the title of the question itself (Create a branch in Git from another branch), but does not address the more narrow specifics of the question which already have sufficient answers here.

I'm adding this because I really needed to know how to do #1 below just now (create a new branch from a branch I do NOT have checked out), and it wasn't obvious how to do it, and Google searches led to here as a top search result. So, I'll share my findings here. This isn't touched upon well, if at all, by any other answer here.

While I'm at it, I'll also add my other most-common git branch commands I use in my regular workflow, below.

1. To create a new branch from a branch you do NOT have checked out:

Create branch2 from branch1 while you have any branch whatsoever checked out (ex: let's say you have master checked out):

git branch branch2 branch1

The general format is:

git branch <new_branch> [from_branch]

man git branch shows it as follows. What I call <new_branch> is what they call <branchname>, and what I call [from_branch] is what they call [<start-point>]:

git branch [--track | --no-track] [-l] [-f] <branchname> [<start-point>]

2. To create a new branch from the branch you DO have checked out:

git branch new_branch

This is great for making backups before rebasing, squashing, hard resetting, etc.--before doing anything which could mess up your branch badly.

Ex: I'm on feature_branch1, and I'm about to squash 20 commits into 1 using git rebase -i master. In case I ever want to "undo" this, let's back up this branch first! I do this ALL...THE...TIME and find it super helpful and comforting to know I can always easily go back to this backup branch and re-branch off of it to try again in case I mess up feature_branch1 in the process:

git branch feature_branch1_BAK_20200814-1320hrs_about_to_squash

The 20200814-1320hrs part is the date and time in format YYYYMMDD-HHMMhrs, so that would be 13:20hrs (1:20pm) on 14 Aug. 2020. This way I have an easy way to find my backup branches until I'm sure I'm ready to delete them. If you don't do this and you mess up badly, you have to use git reflog to go find your branch prior to messing it up, which is much harder, more stressful, and more error-prone.

3. To create and check out a new branch from the branch you DO have checked out:

git checkout -b new_branch

To make it obvious what is happening there, know that this one command above is equivalent to these two separate commands:

git branch new_branch
git checkout new_branch

4. To create and check out a new branch from a branch you do NOT have checked out:

git checkout -b new_branch from_branch

To make it obvious what is happening there, know that this one command above is equivalent to these three separate commands:

git checkout from_branch
git branch new_branch
git checkout new_branch

5. To rename a branch

Just like renaming a regular file or folder in the terminal, git considered "renaming" to be more like a 'm'ove command, so you use git branch -m to rename a branch. Here's the general format:

git branch -m <old_name> <new_name>

man git branch shows it like this:

git branch (-m | -M) [<oldbranch>] <newbranch>

Example: let's rename branch_1 to branch_1.5:

git branch -m branch_1 branch_1.5

OR, if you already have branch_1 checked out, you can rename the currently-checked-out branch to branch_1.5 like this:

git branch -m branch_1.5