How to Create Branch From a Commit in Git

Stewart Nguyen Feb 02, 2024
How to Create Branch From a Commit in Git

This article will demonstrate how to create a new branch from a commit.

To create a branch from an SHA commit, use the command git branch <new_branch> <commit_sha> with the commit as the last argument.

You can also use a symbolic reference instead of sha, for example, git branch <new_branch> HEAD~4.

$ git log
commit 1e087f5309ae647d16a0e1469dfd12a7cd91e22d (HEAD -> feature/changes-to-file)
Author: Cuong Nguyen
Date:   Sat Dec 18 22:01:00 2021 +0700

    Make some change to file.txt

commit ab38737fe95f4959139b995b960a0173b4dd2c7e
Author: Cuong Nguyen
Date:   Sat Dec 18 21:26:31 2021 +0700

    Hotfix #1

$ git branch branch-from-hotfix-commit ab38737fe95f4959139b995b960a0173b4dd2c7e
$ git checkout branch-from-hotfix-commit
Switched to branch 'branch-from-hotfix-commit'
$ git log
$ git log
commit ab38737fe95f4959139b995b960a0173b4dd2c7e (HEAD -> branch-from-hotfix-commit)
Author: Cuong Nguyen
Date:   Sat Dec 18 21:26:31 2021 +0700

    Hotfix #1

To checkout the branch when it’s been creating, use git checkout -b <new_branch> <commit_sha>.

Related Article - Git Branch

Related Article - Git Commit