git add --patch...split changes to a file over multiple commits

[markcmiller86]

Date: Mon, 03 May 2021 22:51:49 -0700
From: miller86 at llnl.gov (Miller, Mark C.)
This post was imported from the visit-developers@ornl.gov email archive

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FWIW, if you now examine this PR, https://github.com/visit-dav/visit/pull/5679/commits

It is possible to march through the commits there and review and have a conversation about each
commit for the independent little bit of work each does.

In my earlier years as a developer, I?ve never really given much thought to what my ?tracks through
the code base? look like to others who may wonder around after me trying to learn what I did. As I
spend more time doing PR reviews and having my changes reviewed by others, I am starting to become
more sensitive to and aware of best practices for doing this.

Mark

'Miller, Mark C.' wrote:

I was working on changes to bv_hdf5.sh

The changes I made were

?         Remove obsolete patching logic

?         Add isatty patch for HDF5 1.8.14

?         Make dependence on zlib optional

After making all the changes and testing that they worked, I was about to just commit the changed
file.

But, I decided I wanted to align each of the above changes *with* its own commit. What to do?

git add -?patch allowed me to selectively pick diffs on the file and stage them for a commit. So, I
ran that multiple times, each time selecting diffs for changes related to one of the three bullets
above and then doing a git commit -m ?<comment>? for each staged set of changes.

Mark

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Miller, Mark C.
?Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected
are as outraged as those who are.? -- ~Ben Franklin

URL: <https://elist.ornl.gov/mailman/private/visit-
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