git format-patch: skipping interim commits.

[ali@internetdog.org (Ali Bahar)]

Hi all,

(yes, I _am_ aware that there is a separate git mailing list. This
seemed to be more apt for _here_, as a first attempt.)

When I run 'git format-patch' to prepare a submission, it creates a
patch-file for every commit. While this is sometimes fine, it often
isn't: I want it to skip all the interim commits which I did during
development. There is no point in (and likely prosecutable in several
jurisdictions) submitting the interim miscellany, thereby creating
needless, non-Acked, log entries in master.

I do have a crude work-around for this, but I prefer to find out how
everyone else tackles this. I expect that it is more a _workflow_
issue than having to do with specifying revision ranges on the
command-line.


thanks,
ali
PS the crude work-around is to copy all the changes into a clean
branch, and do a single commit. But that's error-prone when you have
numerous files, and several sets of commits.

PPS A simplified example, given a Master and a Dev branch:
1. Dev has lots of interim commits, for a single, logically-cohesive
  change. Once the work is complete, I want to create a single patch
  file for the entire delta against Master.
2. Dev will next have another set of commits. These are logically
  related and, once done, are to result in another single patch file.
3. and so on.

This is all subject to Release Early, Release Often, so I am not
talking about sitting on a bunch of changes for too long!