Not able to start feature branch by selecting commit id option

Mohammad Imran November 16, 2017

Hi,

I'm working on implementing Git Flow branching strategy in my company and for that I'm testing all possible options which is provided in SourceTree GitFlow.

Two problems I've faced till now:

1. I'm trying to start a new feature branch by selecting a specified commit with value but its failing with below error

sh.exe C:\Users\useraname\AppData\Local\Atlassian\SourceTree\gitflow_local\gitflow\git-flow feature start checkingfeaturebycommit d14c9a9a35d504958e3df6b42db5acfc8466bfd4
Fatal: Base 'd14c9a9a35d504958e3df6b42db5acfc8466bfd4' needs to be a branch. It does not exist and is required.
Completed with errors, see above.

 

2. what is meaning of second option while starting feature "Working copy parent"

because when I tried to start feature by selecting this option, it also failed with same error.

Please help me understand these and let me know if I'm doing anything wrong.

Thanks,

Imran

 

 

 

4 answers

5 votes
Mike Corsaro
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
November 20, 2017

Hello! This appears to be an issue with git-flow where it will not allow commit SHAs to be used when starting a new feature (I'd suggest that you file a bug here. If you'd like to start a new feature from a branch, then I'd recommend just typing the name of the branch into the "Specified commit" box.

  • "Working copy parent" refers to the 'parent' branch that you are currently working on. This will also not function due to the use of a commit SHA
  • "Latest development branch" refers to the branch that you've assigned to be "develop" when you initialized git-flow.
ricardoPT June 6, 2018

Btw, despite this workaround using branch name works if you want to branch from the last branch commit, probably the real solution to this problem is here (did not tried it yet): 
https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Sourcetree-questions/Is-git-flow-broken-in-Sourcetree-2-7-1/qaq-p/728759

3 votes
sdepner September 5, 2019

It's the same problem with a release branch with a specific commit.

why is this funcion implemented in the workflow when it's not working?

rjseker April 1, 2020

I have the same problem, I need to create a release form a specific commit and it's failing, this functionality is imperative !

1 vote
pratimad March 10, 2021

Hi everyone, even i faced same issue when trying to create a feature branch on working copy parent. Got the error fatal ...... as mentioned in issue statement. I am working on MAC.

I tried a workaround , may be it will be helpful for others too.

I created branch by clicking "Branch" button instead of Git flow.

And then gave it name like " feature/yourbranchname " , select working copy from radio options.

 

Hence this created feature branch on my working copy on current commit.

0 votes
rjseker April 1, 2020

I have the same problem, I need to create a release form a specific commit and it's failing, this functionality is imperative !

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