How to create a new branch and move existing code there

Question

Let say that I start to work on clear master branch - no changes to commit. Do some local changes but realize that this modifications should be in a separate branch instead of master.

Is there a way how to move this changes to separate new branch and restate master branch into status no changes to commit ?

EDIT

Following the accepted answer for git branching - how to make current master a branch and then revert master back to previous version? ...When following the steps, my master will still have modified files.See the last comment 7.

Do I am missing something ?

$ git branch                                   # 1. starting on master                                     
# On branch master
  nothing to commit, working directory clean


# On branch master                             # 2.modifying a file 
# Changes not staged for commit:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
#
#   modified:   test.txt
#
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")



$ git stash                                    # 3. stashing changes
Saved working directory and index state WIP on master: 393bfad initial commit
HEAD is now at 393bfad initial commit
$ git status
# On branch master
nothing to commit, working directory clean


$ git checkout -b experiment                   # 4. creating new branch experiment 
Switched to a new branch 'experiment'


$ git stash pop                                # 5. pop staged changes in exper.
# On branch experiment
# Changes not staged for commit:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
#
#   modified:   test.txt
#
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")
Dropped refs/stash@{0} (16b6871d43f367edd03f59558eca4163cd1a2b2f)


$ git checkout master                           #6. going back to master
M   test.txt
Switched to branch 'master'
git status
# On branch master
# Changes not staged for commit:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
#
#   modified:   test.txt                #7. in master test.txt is still modified !!!

Answer 1

I haven't tested this (and I'm not a git guru that should be blindly trusted), but after reading about stashing (http://git-scm.com/book/en/Git-Tools-Stashing) it seems like the following commands may be best.

git stash
git stash branch testchanges

Answer 2

If you did not commit anything, it is no problem to go with git stash. If you already did some commits (and you really should) git stash won't help. In this case the easiest way is:

• You checkout master.
• You work on the code and do your commits. (Never have uncommited changes!)
• You realize, that you want a new branch based on master.
• You simply rename your branch git branch -m feature-xy.
• As this branch still tracks the remote master you can do things like git pull --rebase to integrate potential upstream changes.
• Once you are finished push it: git push -u feature-xy:feature-xy (Note the -u to update you upstream branch.)
• To get a local clean master simply check it out: git checkout master (As there is no local master anymore, git will create a new one from upstream.)

Answer 3

After you git stash pop, you need to commit to the new branch. Just commit before checking out master.

$ git stash pop
$ git commit -m "Committing changes to branch experiment"
$ git checkout master

Consider the following sequence. From the beginning (ie, you are in branch master with local unstaged changes in the working directory), you could just do:

$ git checkout -b experiment
$ git add test.txt
$ git commit -m 'Commit message'
$ git checkout master

The advantage of the stash/pop is that it does the 'add' for you and you don't need to specify the files that are changed. But you still need to commit on the new branch.

Answer 4

use git stash and git stash pop at the new branch