git format-patch: skipping interim commits.

[ali@internetdog.org (Ali Bahar)]

On Sat, Jul 23, 2011 at 10:42:44PM -0700, Manish Katiyar wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 23, 2011 at 9:52 PM, Ali Bahar <ali@internetdog.org> wrote:

> > 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

> > 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.
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Looks like you want to generate a single commit from multiple commits.

Yup. Well phrased.

> Have a look at "git rebase --interactive". You will

Hmm, that's not what I thought rebase was for! I knew of its
branch-synch functionality, not this. Then again, the man page for
git-rebase qualifies for the Stroustrup Award for Clarity! (Either
that, or a steganography award!) ;-)

Thanks much.


> be able to  merge multiple commits into a single commit. So the
> workflow would be something like
> 
> a) Create a new test branch
> b) git rebase --interactive commit-id

I take back what I said about the man page; 66% into it, after the
memorable first page, in the INTERACTIVE MODE section, it explains
perfectly.


> c) Merge commits,

It seems to call these "squash", instead of "merge". No wonder grep
didn't work!


> d) git format-patch ....

Thanks much. Greatly appreciated.

thanks,
ali