Why you might need to do this
You might need to rename a branch to fix a typo, follow a naming convention, or shorten a name that's too long. A branch name that's too long can even cause an error like this:
Along with this error in the logs:
Sorry, refs longer than 255 bytes are not allowed.
Why this happens
Git limits branch names to 255 bytes. If your feature branch name is too long, your Git provider (like GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or Azure DevOps) rejects the pull request before Gearset can create it. This is a limit set by Git and your Git provider.
How to rename a Git branch
Currently, only Github allows to rename the branch directly in UI.
To do so in Github, navigate to your repo and click Branches:
And then ••• on your feature, Rename branch:
For other VCS providers, the easiest option to rename would be to re-create your feature branch by deleting it and creating a new one. Alternative instructions would be to rename it through Git CLI with these commands:
git checkout old-branch-name
git branch -m new-branch-name
git push origin new-branch-name
git push origin --delete old-branch-name
If you have any further questions, please reach out in our in-app chat!