How do I move a commit between branches in Git?

Question

I'm sure this is a simple thing that has been asked and answered, but I don't know what terms to search for. I have this:

    /--master--X--Y
A--B
    \--C--D--E

Where I commited C, D, and E (locally only) on a branch, but then I realized that D and E are really independent of C. I want to move C to its own branch, and keep D and E for later. That is, I want this:

                   /--C
    /--master--X--Y
A--B
    \--D--E

How do I yank C out from under D and E?

Solution

You can use git cherry-pick to grab C, and put it on Y. Assuming Y exists as the tip a branch called branch-Y:

$ git checkout branch-Y
$ git cherry-pick C

So now C is on top of Y. But D and E also still contain C (cherry picking doesn't move a commit, it just makes a copy of it). You'll have to rebase D and E on top of B. Assuming E is the tip of branch-E and B is branch-B, you can:

$ git checkout branch-E
$ git rebase --interactive branch-B

This will open up an interactive rebase session. Just remove commit C entirely, and leave D and E intact. You'll then have D and E rebased on top of B without C.

Comments

[Cascabel]

Note that cherry-pick, as of v1.7.1, can cherry-pick multiple commits, so you can use this to "yank" more than one commit out. You can also do that by creating a temporary branch at E and interactively rebasing it onto Y, keeping only the commits you want, then merging it (it'll be a fast-forward) into Y's branch. (That's always worked, and might be easier anyway, so you don't have to paste as many SHA1s.)