How to add a changed file to an older not last commit in Git

Question

I have changed several things over the last hour and committed them step by step  but I just realized I ve forgot to add a changed file some commits ago  The Log looks like this  GIT TidyUpRequests u 1 d 0 gt  git log  commit fc6734b6351f6c36a587dba6dbd9d5efa30c09ce  Author  David Klein  lt  gt   Date    Tue Apr 27 09 43 55 2010  0200      The Main program now tests both Webservices at once  commit 8a2c6014c2b035e37aebd310a6393a1ecb39f463  Author  David Klein  lt  gt  Date    Tue Apr 27 09 43 27 2010  0200      ISBNDBQueryHandler now uses the XPath functions from XPath fs too  commit 06a504e277fd98d97eed4dad22dfa5933d81451f  Author  David Klein  lt  gt   Date    Tue Apr 27 09 30 34 2010  0200      AmazonQueryHandler now uses the XPath Helper functions defined in XPath fs  commit a0865e28be35a3011d0b6091819ec32922dd2dd8  lt --- changed file should go here Author  David Klein  lt  gt   Date    Tue Apr 27 09 29 53 2010  0200      Factored out some common XPath Operations  Any ideas

User · Answer

To  quot fix quot  an old commit with a small change  without changing the commit message of the old commit  where OLDCOMMIT is something like 091b73a  git add  lt my fixed files gt  git commit --fixup OLDCOMMIT git rebase --interactive --autosquash OLDCOMMIT   You can also use git commit --squash OLDCOMMIT to edit the old commit message during rebase  See documentation for git commit and git rebase  As always  when rewriting git history  you should only fixup or squash commits you have not yet published to anyone else  including random internet users and build servers    Detailed explanation  git commit --fixup OLDCOMMIT copies the OLDCOMMIT commit message and automatically prefixes fixup  so it can be put in the correct order during interactive rebase   --squash OLDCOMMIT does the same but prefixes squash    git rebase --interactive will bring up a text editor  which can be configured  to confirm  or edit  the rebase instruction sequence  There is info for rebase instruction changes in the file  just save and quit the editor   wq in vim  to continue with the rebase  --autosquash will automatically put any --fixup OLDCOMMIT commits in the correct order  Note that --autosquash is only valid when the --interactive option is used  The   in OLDCOMMIT  means it s a reference to the commit just before OLDCOMMIT   OLDCOMMIT  is the first parent of OLDCOMMIT     Optional automation The above steps are good for verification and or modifying the rebase instruction sequence  but it s also possible to skip automate the interactive rebase text editor by   Setting GIT SEQUENCE EDITOR to a script  Creating a git alias to automatically autosquash all queued fixups  Creating a git alias to automatically fixup a single commit

User · Answer

You can try a rebase --interactive session to amend your old commit  provided you did not already push those commits to another repo       Sometimes the thing fixed in b 2  cannot be amended to the not-quite perfect commit it fixes  because that commit is buried deeply in a patch series    That is exactly what interactive rebase is for  use it after plenty of  a s and  b s  by rearranging and editing commits  and squashing multiple commits into one       Start it with the last commit you want to retain as-is    git rebase -i  lt after-this-commit gt       An editor will be fired up with all the commits in your current branch  ignoring merge commits   which come after the given commit    You can reorder the commits in this list to your heart s content  and you can remove them  The list looks more or less like this    pick deadbee The oneline of this commit pick fa1afe1 The oneline of the next commit          The oneline descriptions are purely for your pleasure  git rebase will not look at them but at the commit names   deadbee  and  fa1afe1  in this example   so do not delete or edit the names       By replacing the command  pick  with the command  edit   you can tell git rebase to stop after applying that commit  so that you can edit the files and or the commit message  amend the commit  and continue rebasing

User · Answer

Use git rebase  Specifically    Use git stash to store the changes you want to add  Use git rebase -i HEAD 10  or however many commits back you want to see   Mark the commit in question  a0865     for edit by changing the word pick at the start of the line into edit  Don t delete the other lines as that would delete the commits   vimnote  Save the rebase file  and git will drop back to the shell and wait for you to fix that commit  Pop the stash by using git stash pop Add your file with git add  lt file gt   Amend the commit with git commit --amend --no-edit  Do a git rebase --continue which will rewrite the rest of your commits against the new one  Repeat from step 2 onwards if you have marked more than one commit for edit      vimnote   If you are using vim then you will have to hit the Insert key to edit  then Esc and type in  wq to save the file  quit the editor  and apply the changes  Alternatively  you can configure a user-friendly git commit editor with git config --global core editor  nano

User · Answer

with git 1 7  there s a really easy way using git rebase   stage your files   git add  files   create a new commit and re-use commit message of your  broken  commit  git commit -c master 4   prepend fixup  in the subject line  or squash  if you want to edit commit  message     fixup  Factored out some common XPath Operations   use git rebase -i --autosquash to fixup your commit

[git] How to add a changed file to an older (not last) commit in Git

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