Straypenguins-Tips-Inventory

Creating and Maintaining a Pull Request Branch

Create a Branch for a Pull Request

1. Create a PR branch (for example, if the source is main):

   git fetch origin
   git switch -c feature/update-config origin/main
   

   On older Git environments:

   git checkout -b feature/update-config origin/main
   

2. Add or edit files.

3. Stage and commit your changes:

   git add path/to/modified-file.txt
   git add path/to/another-file.txt
   git commit -m "Update config handling and add example cloud-init"
   

   1. (Optional) When you need to incorporate updates from the parent branch:

      Rebase approach:

      git fetch origin
      git rebase origin/main
      

      If conflicts occur, resolve them and then:

      git add <conflicted-files>
      git rebase --continue
      

      Merge approach:

      git fetch origin
      git merge origin/main
      

      Resolve conflicts and commit the merge.

4. Push to the remote (push the PR branch, not main):

   git push -u origin feature/update-config
   

   For the first push, use -u to set the upstream branch; this makes future pushes and pulls easier.
   If you want to refine the changes locally or continue working before requesting a public review, use Create draft pull request to keep the PR in a “draft” state.

Update the PR Branch

1. Push additional updates to the same PR branch.
   After modifying files:

   git add .
   git commit -m "Address review: fix edge case"
   git push
   

Cleaning Up the PR Branch After the Work Is Finished

Update your local main branch to the latest:

git checkout main
git pull origin main

Delete the now-unnecessary branch locally:

git branch -d feature/update-config

If the remote-tracking branch still appears in git branch -r or git branch -a, delete the corresponding remote-tracking branch explicitly:

git branch -dr origin/feature/update-config

Or, to clean up all “ghost” remote-tracking branches at once:

git fetch --prune origin

If needed, delete the remote branch as well:

git push origin --delete feature/update-config

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