Is it possible to do Git merge from another branch?

Question

Due to my laziness to use git checkout xxx I want to know is it possible to merge upstream/master into master from another branch. My case is like this.

I have `origin` which is my repo.
I have `upstream` which is repo of company.
I have `master` branch.
I have feature/fix branches that are based on `master` branch.

So, basically when I'm in a feature branch I run git fetch upstream to see is there any update on master branch, before I push the branch to my origin (for sending pull request).

If yes then

> git checkout master
> git merge upstream/master
> git push origin master
> git checkout my_feature_branch
> git rebase master

So, I'm looking for an easy way something that takes less time, possibly without switch to master branch. Is it possible?

Answer 1

Script it maybe?

#!/bin/bash
# git-merge-upstream-to-master-and-rebase
original_branch=$(git symbolic-ref --short HEAD)
git checkout master &&
git merge upstream/master &&        
git checkout "$original_branch" &&
git rebase master

You can save it somewhere in your bin path and make it executable. After that, you can start using your single awesome command:

$ git merge-upstream-to-master-and-rebase