Switch to, merge, and push a branch in git
To switch to a branch, use checkout. It’s important that you don’t use the -b option - this creates a new branch even if it already exists on a remote (i.e. in GitHub origin). If you’re used to having different branches checked out in different folders (as an SVN user) then you can make a copy of the whole repo folder that you have previously checked out, and run this command from within the copy:
git checkout gh-pages
Now, if you anticipate an easy merge from master, and you’re happy for git to commit the merge for you right away, you can simply run:
git merge master
For a paranoid merge which you’re worried about, you can turn off the automatic commit and/or manually edit the commit message. After this, you will have to git commit as usual:
git merge --no-commit -e master
Presuming you went for the easy route, all the changes should whizz past in the console. Now all you need to do is push gh-pages to origin:
git push origin gh-pages
This takes a force of willpower if you’re very used to typing git push origin master but you can do it! I believe in you.