Staging Patches for Cleaner Git Commits

Some times you work on your code or configuration files and realise you have made more changes than sensibly fit into one commit. Using patches you can easily select only the changes want rather than adding all the changes in a file. You dont even have to create a seperate patch file.

You can use the git via the interactive mode git add -i, however its just as easy to use the command git add --patch or its short form git add -p. The --patch or -p option allows you to select what git calls hunks, lines git sees as a change within a file. A hunk may be a change to one line or changes across several lines grouped together.

git add -p .

This command will prompt to you accept each hunk through all the files that have modifications since the last commit.

If you just want to pick out changes from a specific file or collection of files you can narrow the scope by specifying the filename or filename pattern

git add -p filename
git add -p *.md 
git add -p config.*

An example

In this example there are several lines of changes in the article.styl file. Using the git add -p command we are shown each hunk in turn as a diff, so we can compare the current version with the changes in the hunk. We then decide if we want to add the changed lines or not.

We say yes to the first hunk and no to the second.

Once we have added or ingnored all the hunks in the file the interactive staging ends. If we are ready we can then do a commit as normal.

Splitting the hunks

Sometimes git chooses hunks that include too many changes. If we see a hunk we want to break down during the interactive staging, we can select the s option. We are then shown the same hunk aft it has been split.

In the following example, our editor has added a new line to the file that we added a twitter account to. We only want to add the twitter account, so split the hunk to get the twitter line as its own hunk.

Then we add the hunk with the twitter change in it by selecting y and do not include the new line change by skipping the next hunk by pressing n.

More Interactive Staging options

There are many more options to help you when your are staging changes interactively. Using the ? key at any time during interactive staging will show you a brief description of those options.

For more detailed descriptoin of interactive staging and the options available, see the git manpages via the command git help add or git add documentation online.

In Summary

By staging patches I can very easily see the exact changes I am assembling for my next commit. I can then include only the code & configuration changes that are ready to be part of the next commit.

Using this patch technique for staging avoids unstaging files (git reset -soft), editing them and then adding them again. That is a real pain.

And finally, staging patches keeps my commits nice and simple and focused. I get a detailed and accurate history of my changes and that makes its really easy for others to merge or cherry-pick my commits.

Read the Git-scm guide on Interactive Staging if you want to see more tooling around this topic.

Thank you.
@jr0cket

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