===== Overview =====

How to move a pile of uncommitted changes from ''master'' to ''topic'', because they should have been on the ''topic'' branch in the first place.

===== The steps =====

While still on ''master'', tag the current HEAD for reference later:

<code>
$ git tag backup
</code>

Commit all your work to ''master'' using reasonable commits for later:

<code>
$ git add ...
$ git commit ...

$ git add ...
$ git commit ...
</code>

Switch to the other branch, which should work fine:

<code>
$ git checkout topic
</code>

Cherry-pick what you want from ''master'', or just all of it, dealing with merge conflicts as they arise:

<code>
$ git cherry-pick backup..master
</code>

Switch back to ''master'', wipe out those redundant commits, and delete the now superfluous tag:

<code>
$ git checkout master
$ git reset --hard backup
$ git tag -d backup
</code>

Note how you can reorganize the commits from ''master'' as you are cherry-picking them.