How do I determine the source branch of a particular branch?

user_32577 0
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I have a branch in git and want to figure out from what branch it originally was branched and at what commit.

Github seems to know, since when you do a pull request it usually automatically sets up what branch it should go into, but I can't figure out how to do this manually from the command line.

Let me add a concrete example:

master -- ongoing development
2.2    -- stable maintenance

A feature branch feature was created (at commit B below) and worked on (B', C' & E') and merged against the source branch to pick up C and D

 feature branch:    B'-C'-C--D--E'
                   /     /       
 source branch: A--B--C--D--E-- ...

Now I want to merge feature back into its source, but I am not sure whether it was originally a branch off master or 2.2. In order to merge the feature into the correct source, is there a programmatic way to find out if source branch is master or 2.2?

git-branch git
5 Answers

If you've created the branch in your system, you can use git reflog to check the source branch. It will have a line indicating your checkout action. For example:

6f52daa (origin/master, origin/HEAD, master) HEAD@{4}: checkout: moving from master to sample-branch
user_90700160

The github.com user interface can be used to see where a branch was sourced from.

This is one of a number of useful capabilities of the github user interface that is a little bit hidden in that you need to pretend you would like to create a pull request to see the information you are looking for.

To see where a branch came from using the GITHUB.COM user interface:

Navigate to the repository you are working with and select the branches link.
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Select "New Pull Request" for the branch you are interested in.
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This will take you to a page that shows the source (including the source branch) of your selected branch as well as the changes that have been made from that original source.
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Close the window/tab or click away from the page to prevent creating the actual pull request.

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