GIT-BRANCHES-RENAME(1)

📦 version 2025.08, in epel 10, epel 9, fedora 43, fedora 44, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable

✨ GIT-BRANCHES-RENAME ✨

okay bestie, so this is a page from the General Commands Manual (section 1, the main character section obviously 💅) and it's all about git-branches-rename — a lil git tool that lives in the git-tools collection. buckle up, it's a short one but it ATE.

🌸 NAME 🌸

git-branches-rename — Batch renames branches with a matching prefix to another prefix

like... it goes through your branches, finds all the ones starting with one prefix, and swaps that prefix out for a new one. en masse. no cap. 🔥

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

git-branches-rename [options] BRANCH_PREFIX NEW_PREFIX

two positional args, some options, that's the whole vibe ✨

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Batch renames branches with a matching prefix to another prefix.

that's it. that's the tea. it looks at your branch names, grabs every one that starts with your BRANCH_PREFIX, and renames it so it starts with NEW_PREFIX instead. one command, many branches, zero manual labor. it's giving efficiency 💅

💖 OPTIONS 💖

  • -h, --help — show usage information. your little "wait how does this work again" button 🫶
  • -v, --verbose — print more details about what is being done. she gets chatty, she tells you everything 👑
  • -n, --dry-run — do not actually rename the branches. a lil dress rehearsal — it shows you the drama but doesn't touch your repo 🙈

and then the two positional besties:

  • BRANCH_PREFIX — a prefix that matches the start of branch names.
  • NEW_PREFIX — the new prefix for the branch names.
⚠️ heads up: the prefix has to match the start of the branch name. it's not out here matching random substrings in the middle, she has standards.

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

first one — renaming everything that starts with bug:

$ git-rename-branches bug bugfix
bug/128  -> bugfix/128
bug_test -> bugfix_test

see how bug/128 became bugfix/128 and bug_test became bugfix_test? the bug bit got swapped for bugfix, the rest stayed exactly where it was. periodt. ✨

second one — moving your main branches into a backup/ namespace:

$ git-rename-branches ma backup/ma
master -> backup/master
main   -> backup/main

ma matches both master and main, so both got the backup/ glow-up. iconic honestly. 🌸

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

go look at the whole git-tools family, they're all lowkey slaying 🦋

💜 AUTHOR 💜

Rodrigo Silva (MestreLion) linux@rodrigosilva.com

the legend herself wrote this one. respect. 👑

and that's a wrap on git-branches-rename(1) — this lil page came out on 2016-01-31, so yeah she's an elder but she still eats 💅 go rename some branches bestie, you got this 💖✨

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