There isn't anything to compare. Nothing to compare, branches are entirely different commit histories
GitGithubGit DiffGit Problem Overview
I have a CMS theme installed on my machine. I'm tracking changes to it via git and decided to back it up on GitHub so I could share those changes.
The theme as provided is also available on GitHub. On my machine I have added this as a remote upstream. Now I can easily see the changes between my master and the remote upstream by using the following command:
git diff --color master upstream/number
If I could add the remote upstream on GitHub I could easily share these changes. Is it possible to set this relationship on GitHub?
I have tried the following:
git push -u origin upstreambranch
which adds an upstreambranch
to the master on GitHub. However trying to
compare both branches doesn't work, the result I get on GitHub is that: "There
isn't anything to compare"
Is there an alternative way to compare these?
Git Solutions
Solution 1 - Git
The Short Answer
It looks like GitHub won't let you compare the branches because they don't actually share any of the same history at all, even though they may share much of the same files and code.
Here is a screenshot of the temporary fork I made of your repo, where I tried to
compare master
with the upstreambranch
, like you described. Notice the error
message:
It says:
> There isn't anything to compare.
>
> master
and upstreambranch
are entirely different commit histories.
The Long Answer
You probably downloaded the original source and added it to a completely new repo instead of cloning the original repo, right? Doing that will make it so that the history of your repo will be completely different from the history of the original repo, since your new repo won't have any of the same commits with the same sha IDs.
You can see that by doing a reverse log of your master
branch and the
upstreambranch
:
# Your first commit, see commit sha
git log --reverse master
commit c548d7b1b16b0350d7fbdb3ff1cfedcb38051397 # <== HERE
Author: Padraic Stack <padraic.stack@nuim.ie>
Date: Wed Apr 2 15:11:28 2014 +0100
First commit of everything
# First commit sha of the original repo
git log --reverse upstreambranch
commit 105a12817234033c45b4dc7522ff3103f473a862 # <== THERE
Author: Jeremy Boggs <jeremy@clioweb.org>
Date: Mon Feb 22 16:00:53 2010 +0000
Creates repo directories for the Seasons theme.
Solutions
If you redo your commits on top of the original history, you should then be able to compare the branches. There are several different ways that you can redo your commits, including
git rebase --onto
and
git cherry-pick
You also can redo each commit manually, if you have to.
Solution 2 - Git
If the problem is "main and master are entirely different commit histories.", the following will work
git checkout master
git branch main master -f
git checkout main
git push origin main -f
Solution 3 - Git
I had a similar situation, where my master branch and the develop branch I was trying to merge had different commit histories. None of the above solutions worked for me. What did the trick was:
Starting from master:
git branch new_branch
git checkout new_branch
git merge develop --allow-unrelated-histories
Now in the new_branch, there are all the things from develop and I can easily merge into master, or create a pull request, as they now share the same commit hisotry.
Solution 4 - Git
I solve my issue using these commands
git checkout [BRANCH]
git branch master [BRANCH] -f
git checkout master
git push origin master -f
Solution 5 - Git
You can force update your master
branch as follows:
git checkout upstreambranch
git branch master upstreambranch -f
git checkout master
git push origin master -f
For the ones who have problem to merge into main
branch (Which is the new default one in Github) you can use the following:
git checkout master
git branch main master -f
git checkout main
git push origin main -f
The following command will force both branches to have the same history:
git branch [Branch1] [Branch2] -f
Solution 6 - Git
From the experiment branch
git rebase master
git push -f origin <experiment-branch>
This creates a common commit history to be able to compare both branches.
Solution 7 - Git
This looks like undesirable behavior on github's part, but it's fairly easy to fix. What you want to do is to rebase your branch on a reasonable (any reasonable) commit in the existing history. What you can do is to fetch the github repo and find which tree in its history is most similar to the one you started with. Start this way:
git remote add github u://r/l
git fetch github
myroot=`git rev-list master --max-parents=0`
root_tree=`git rev-parse $myroot^{tree}`
github_base=`git log --pretty=%H\ %T github/master | sed -n "s/$root_tree//p"`
With any luck, that will find you a commit in the github history that has the exact tree you started with. Assuming it does,
git rebase --onto $github_base $myroot master
and you're done.
If that doesn't find a matching tree, you get to find a nearest approximation. Here's one way to get a rough estimate of the differences:
git log --pretty='echo %H $(git diff-tree -p -b -U0 '$myroot:' %T|wc -l)' github/master \
| sh
which will count the lines in a minimized diff between the tree of each commit in the github/master
history and your root tree. It seems reasonable to hope for a nice small difference, you could eyeball the actual diffs on it before calling that the github_base
commit and doing the rebase above.
Solution 8 - Git
Terminology
First, let's get some terminology out of the way...
upstream <= The remote git repo (likely whose master or release branch is in production)
forked-repo <= The remote [experimental git repo] (https://docs.github.com/en/github/getting-started-with-github/fork-a-repo) also known as "origin".
local repo <= The files and directories that you work with on your local workstaion, which you likely got by running a git clone my-forked-repo.git
command
local index <= Also known as your local git "stage", i.e., where you stage your files before pushing them to you remote repo.
Github workflow process
Next, let's talk about the process of getting your changes to the upstream repo:
The process is generally to work on a feature branch and then push said branch, and open a Pull Request, either to your forked-repo's master branch or to the upstream's master branch
Create a feature branch by running git checkout -b FEATURE_BRANCH_NAME
Add/delete/modify files project files.
Add files by running git add .
Commit your files to your index by running git commit -m'My commit message'
Push your staged files by running git push origin FEATURE_BRANCH_NAME
Solution for entirely different commit histories
The master and upstreambranch are entirely different commit histories message can occur when you've forked a git repository and have changed your git history.
For example, if you fork a repo and pull your forked repo to work on it locally...
If then you decide to rewrite the entire application and then decide it's a good idea to deleting all existing files, including the forked-repo's .git directory. You add new files and directories to recreate your app and also recreate your .git directory with git init
command.
Now, your application works great with your new files and you want to get it merged into the upstream repo. However, when you push your changes you get that "...entirely different commit histories..." error message.
You'll see that your original git commit will be different in your new local directory and if in your remote fork (as well as your upstream). Check this out by running this command in your current directory: git log --reverse master
. Then running the following: pushd $(mktemp -d); git clone https://github.com/my-forking-username/my-forked-repo.git; git log --reverse master; popd
You must fix your local .git repo to match your remote my-forked-repo if you want to push your commits and subsequently perform a pull request (in hopes of merging your new updates to the upstream/master branch).
git clone https://github.com/my-forking-username/my-forked-repo.git
cd my-forked-repo
git checkout -b my-new-files-branch-name
# Delete all files and directories except for the .git directory
git add .
git commit -m'Remove old files'
# Copy your new files to this my-forked-repo directory
git add .
git commit -m'Add new files'
git push origin my-new-files-branch-name
Create a PR on GitHub and request to merge your my-new-files-branch-name branch in your my-forked-repo into master.
Note: The "...entirely different commit histories..." error message can also occur in non-forked repos for the same reasons and can be fixed with the same solution above.
Solution 9 - Git
A more simple approach where you can't mingle with the master.
Consider i have master
and JIRA-1234
branch and when i am trying to merge JIRA-1234
to master
i am getting the above issue so please follow below steps:-
-
From
JIRA-1234
cut a branchJIRA-1234-rebase
(Its a temp branch and can have any name. I have takenJIRA-1234-rebase
to be meaningful.)git checkout JIRA-1234
git checkout -b JIRA-1234-rebase
-
The above command will create a new branch
JIRA-1234-rebase
and will checkout it. -
Now we will rebase our
master
.git rebase master
(This is executed in the same branchJIRA-1234-rebase
) -
You will see a window showing the commit history from first commit till the last commit on
JIRA-1234-rebase
. So if we have 98 commits then it will rebase them 1 by 1 and you will see something like 1/98. -
Here we just need to pick the commit we want so if you want this commit then don't do anything and just HIT
Esc
then:q!
and HITENTER
. -
There would be some changes in case of conflict and you need to resolve this conflict and then add the files by
git add <FILE_NAME>
.
-
Now do
git rebase continue
it will take you to rebase 2/98 and similarly you have to go through all the 98 commits and resolve all of them and remeber we need to add the files in each commit. -
Finally you can now push these commits and then raise Pull Request by
git push
orgit push origin JIRA-1234-rebase
Solution 10 - Git
This happened for me because I created a repo from GH, but then I also added a README. In doing so I created a commit on my remote.
Then I went and created a new repo locally, made some changes and committed. Then I pushed it to the repo and tried to make a Pull Request.
But my remote's initial commit was different from my local's commit, hence this error message. GitHub itself even warns you against this:
> Create a new repository on GitHub.com. To avoid errors, do not initialize the new repository with README, license, or gitignore files. You can add these files after your project has been pushed to GitHub. > > GitHub Docs
Similarly if you're creating a new repo, GitHub will quietly suggest that you skip initializing the repo. Rather just define the repo.
tldr the very first commit has to be identical, you can't merge 2 commits that don't have an identical initial commit.
Solution 11 - Git
If you know from which commit issue started, you can reset your branch to that commit and then merge them.
Solution 12 - Git
This happened with me yesterday cause I downloaded the code from original repo and try to pushed it on my forked repo, spend so much time on searching for solving "Unable to push error" and pushed it forcefully.
Solution:
Simply Refork the repo by deleting previous one and clone the repo from forked repo to the new folder.
Replace the file with old one in new folder and push it to repo and do a new pull request.
Solution 13 - Git
I solved that problem. In my case when i did “git clone” in one directory of my choice without do “git init” inside of that repository. Then I moved in to the cloned repository, where already have a “.git” (is a git repository i.e. do not need a “git init”) and finally I started do my changes or anything.
It probably doesn’t solve the problem but shows you how to avoid it.
The command git clone should be a “cd” command imbued if no submodule exists.
Solution 14 - Git
this is 100% works in any situation :
1)create new folder in your machine
2)clone the remote repository to the new folder
3)delete all files and folders except for the .git folder
4)add your project files that you are working on to this new folder you created
5)open terminal
6)cd new_folder_path (path to the new folder you created)
warning : don't type > git init
7) > git add .
8) > git commit -m "write anything"
9) > git push URL(url of the remote repository)local_branch_name:remote_branch_name
Solution 15 - Git
I found that none of the answers provided actually worked for me; what actually worked for me is to do:
git push --set-upstream origin *BRANCHNAME*
After creating a new branch, then it gets tracked properly. (I have Git 2.7.4)
Solution 16 - Git
I don't think we have same case here, but still someone else may find it helpful.
When similar error occurred to me, it was going to be the first merge and first commit. There was nothing in on-line repository. Therefore, there was no code on git-hub, to compare with.
I simply deleted the empty repository and created new one with same name. And then there was no error.
Solution 17 - Git
I got this error message, because I was migrating an application from SVN to GitHub and it's not enough to invoke a git init in the location of the source code checked out from SVN, but you need to invoke a git svn clone in order to have all the commit history. This way the two source codes on GitHub will have a mutual history and I was able to open pull requests.
Solution 18 - Git
I had an issue where I was pushing to my remote repo from a local repo that didn't match up with history of remote. This is what worked for me.
I cloned my repo locally so I knew I was working with fresh copy of repo:
git clone Your_REPO_URL_HERE.git
Switch to the branch you are trying to get into the remote:
git checkout Your_BRANCH_NAME_HERE
Add the remote of the original:
git remote add upstream Your_REMOTE_REPO_URL_HERE.git
Do a git fetch and git pull:
git fetch --all
git pull upstream Your_BRANCH_NAME_HERE
If you have merge conflicts, resolve them with
git mergetool kdiff3
or other merge tool of your choice.
Once conflicts are resolved and saved. Commit and push changes.
Now go to the gitub.com repo of the original and attempt to create a pull request. You should have option to create pull request and not see the "Nothing to compare, branches are entirely different commit histories" Note: You may need to choose compare across forks for your pull request.
Solution 19 - Git
Top guy is probably right that you downloaded instead of cloning the repo at start. Here is a easy solution without getting too technical.
- In a new editor window, clone your repo in another directory.
- Make a new branch.
- Then copy from your your edited editor window into your new repo by copy paste.
Make sure that all your edits are copied over by looking at your older github branch.
Solution 20 - Git
I had mine solved by overriding the branch:
My case: I wanted to override whatever code is in the develop
with version_2
.
- delete the local copy of conflicting branch:
git checkout version_2
git branch -D develop
- checkout a fresh branch from the
version_2
and force push to git:
git checkout -b `develop`
git push origin `develop`
I didn't need to rebase. But in my case, I didn't need to take code from my old code.
Solution 21 - Git
- first: pull from remote repo
- merge or rebase
- finally: push to remote repo
- finish
Solution 22 - Git
When you are pull/merging feature to main and are in the main branch in the terminal, I successfully used 'git pull origin feature --allow-unrelated-histories'. Before using this command, I had the same message about completely different commit histories, and I think it's because I accidentally pushed to main after committing to the feature branch. Then I tried some of the solutions offered here like rebase, which allowed me to merge my code, but I still had the compare and pull notifications through git, and it was a one time fix. By one time fix I mean I still got the different commit history message the next time I tried to merge a feature branch's code to main. Another source from a google search offered the --allow-unrelated-histories fix, and it permanently works exactly how I wanted it to. The branches were merged and now I can merge without error messages and the compare and pull notifications work through git. I'm sure there are consequences for people who didn't have the same problem as me, but I didn't lose any code and now my repo is clean. Also, I'm also an amateur coder and the question is older so maybe this command wasn't available when the question was asked or I'm not understanding the issue correctly.
Solution 23 - Git
I wanted to copy commit history of "master" branch & overwrite the commit history of "main" branch .
The steps are:-
- git checkout master
- git branch main master -f
- git checkout main
- git push
To delete master branch:-
a. Locally:-
- git checkout main
- git branch -d master
b. Globally:-
- git push origin --delete master
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