How can I move all my modification to a branch

Question

Hi,

I create a working repository in HG. And I have modified some files.

How can i move my all my modification to a branch (a branch that I have not created)? (kind of 'git stash' and the move the stash away change to a branch. Actually, I am not sure how I can do that in git either. If you know, I appreciate if you can tell me in git as well)

Thank you.

Answer 1

For Git, if you have not yet committed your files, just type:

$ git checkout -b newbranch
$ git commit -m "a message"

Every file staged at this point will be committed in the new branch.

For Mercurial, branches are not names by default, and a new branch only occurs (within one repo) if a commit has a parent which has already a child commit:

But you can create a new branch name for your next commit:

hg branch branch-1          # start a new branch name
                            # modify something in the repository
hg commit -m "branch-1"     # the changeset has branch name "branch-1"

(See also a Guide to branching in Mercurial, and Git & Mercurial models)

Answer 2

First check to make sure that neither the ShelveExtension nor AtticExtension do exactly what you want.

If you're doing it manually in mercurial I'd avoid a named branch, and just use another head. If for example, you already made the changes you want to "put away" for a little bit.

hg commit -m 'working on Xxx' # you created a new tip
hg update -r -2               # switch to the revision before the tip

and now just start working there. You can find that anonymous branch later with hg heads and merge it in with hg merge.