Rename file with Git

Solution 1:

As far as I can tell, GitHub does not provide shell access, so I'm curious about how you managed to log in in the first place.

$ ssh -T [email protected]
Hi username! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide
shell access.

You have to clone your repository locally, make the change there, and push the change to GitHub.

$ git clone [email protected]:username/reponame.git
$ cd reponame
$ git mv README README.md
$ git commit -m "renamed"
$ git push origin master

Solution 2:

Note that, from March 15th, 2013, you can move or rename a file directly from GitHub:

(you don't even need to clone that repo, git mv xx and git push back to GitHub!)

renaming

You can also move files to entirely new locations using just the filename field.
To navigate down into a folder, just type the name of the folder you want to move the file into followed by /.
The folder can be one that’s already part of your repository, or it can even be a brand-new folder that doesn’t exist yet!

moving

Solution 3:

You can rename a file using git's mv command:

$ git mv file_from file_to

Example:

$ git mv helo.txt hello.txt

$ git status
# On branch master
# Changes to be committed:
#   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
#   renamed:    helo.txt -> hello.txt
#

$ git commit -m "renamed helo.txt to hello.txt"
[master 14c8c4f] renamed helo.txt to hello.txt
 1 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 rename helo.txt => hello.txt (100%)

Solution 4:

I had a similar problem going through a tutorial.

# git mv README README.markdown

fatal: bad source, source=README, destination=README.markdown

I included the filetype in the source file:

# git mv README.rdoc README.markdown

and it worked perfectly. Don't forget to commit the changes with i.e.:

# git commit -a -m "Improved the README"

Sometimes it is simple little things like that, that piss us off. LOL

Solution 5:

Do a git status to find out if your file is actually in your index or the commit.

It is easy as a beginner to misunderstand the index/staging area.

I view it as a 'progress pinboard'. I therefore have to add the file to the pinboard before I can commit it (i.e. a copy of the complete pinboard), I have to update the pinboard when required, and I also have to deliberately remove files from it when I've finished with them - simply creating, editing or deleting a file doesn't affect the pinboard. It's like 'storyboarding'.

Edit: As others noted, You should do the edits locally and then push the updated repo, rather than attempt to edit directly on github.