Commit only part of a file in Git

Question

When I make changes to a file in Git  how can I commit only some of the changes   For example  how could I commit only 15 lines out of 30 lines that have been changed in a file

User · Answer

Tried out git add -p filename x  but on a mac  I found gitx  http   gitx frim nl  or https   github com pieter gitx  to be much easier to commit exactly the lines I wanted to

User · Answer

You can use git add --patch  lt filename gt   or -p for short   and git will begin to break down your file into what it thinks are sensible  hunks   portions of the file   It will then prompt you with this question   Stage this hunk  y n q a d   j J g s e       Here is a description of each option    y stage this hunk for the next commit n do not stage this hunk for the next commit q quit  do not stage this hunk or any of the remaining hunks a stage this hunk and all later hunks in the file d do not stage this hunk or any of the later hunks in the file g select a hunk to go to   search for a hunk matching the given regex j leave this hunk undecided  see next undecided hunk J leave this hunk undecided  see next hunk k leave this hunk undecided  see previous undecided hunk K leave this hunk undecided  see previous hunk s split the current hunk into smaller hunks e manually edit the current hunk   print hunk help   If the file is not in the repository yet  you can first do git add -N  lt filename gt   Afterwards you can go on with git add -p  lt filename gt    Afterwards  you can use    git diff --staged to check that you staged the correct changes git reset -p to unstage mistakenly added hunks git commit -v to view your commit while you edit the commit message    Note this is far different than the git format-patch command  whose purpose is to parse commit data into a  patch files   Reference for future  Git Tools - Interactive Staging

User · Answer

For those who use Git Extensions   In the Commit window  select the file you want to partially commit  then select the text you want to commit in the right pane  then right-click on the selection and choose  Stage selected lines  from the context menu

User · Answer

git gui provides this functionality under the diff view  Just right click the line s  you re interested in and you should see a  stage this line to commit  menu item

User · Answer

Intellij IDEA  and I guess all other products of the series  has built in support for partial commits since v2018 1

User · Answer

Much like jdsumsion s answer you can also stash your current work but then use a difftool like meld to pull selected changes from the stash  That way you can even edit the hunks manually very easy  which is a bit of a pain when in git add -p     git stash -u   git difftool -d -t meld stash   git commit -a -m  some message    git stash pop   Using the stash method gives you the opportunity to test  if your code still works  before you commit it

User · Answer

git-cola is a great GUI and also has this feature built-in  Just select the lines to stage and press S  If no selection is made  the complete hunk is staged

User · Answer

With TortoiseGit      right click on the file and use Context Menu   Restore after commit  This will create a copy of the file as it is  Then you can edit the file  e g  in TortoiseGitMerge and undo all the changes you don t want to commit  After saving those changes you can commit the file

User · Answer

Should you use emacs  take a look at Magit  which provides a git interface for emacs  It supports staging hunks  parts of files  quite well

User · Answer

If it s on Windows platform  in my opinion git gui is very good tool to stage commit few lines from unstaged file  1  Hunk wise    Select the file from unstagged Changes section Right click chunk of code which needs to be staged Select Stage Hunk for commit   2  Line wise    Select the file from unstagged Changes section  Select the line lines to be staged Right click and select Stage Lines for commit   3  If you want to stage the complete file except couple of lines    Select the file from unstagged Changes section Press Ctrl T  Stage file to commit  Selected file now moves to Staged Changes Section Select the line lines be staged Right click and select UnStage Lines for commit

User · Answer

Adding on a previous answer  if you prefer using the command line  entering git add -e myfile gives you the choice to choose line by line what you want to commit because this command will open an editor with the differences  like so     As you may known lines that start with   are addtions  lines that start with - are deletions  So    To not stage an addition just delete that line  To not stage a deletion just replace - with space     This is what git add -h says about adding files this way  patching files       added content               Added content is represented by lines beginning with      You can              prevent staging any addition lines by deleting them       removed content               Removed content is represented by lines beginning with  -   You can              prevent staging their removal by converting the  -  to a                   space        modified content                Modified content is represented by  -  lines  removing the old              content  followed by     lines  adding the replacement content                You can prevent staging the modification by converting  -  lines to                   and removing     lines  Beware that modifying only half of the              pair is likely to introduce confusing changes to the index    Caution  do not change the content of the file  this is not a good place to do so  Just change the operators of deleted or added lines

User · Answer

If you re using VSCode  then you re in luck  Select the range that you want to stage  then use Git  Stage Selected Ranges to stage them  and commit if you want  I recorded a gif to demonstrate what I meant

User · Answer

For emacs there is also gitsum

User · Answer

You can use git add --interactive or git add -p  lt file gt   and then git commit  not git commit -a   see Interactive mode in git-add manpage  or simply follow instructions   Modern Git has also git commit --interactive  and git commit --patch  which is shortcut to patch option in interactive commit    If you prefer doing it from GUI  you can use git-gui  You can simply mark chunks which you want to have included in commit   I personally find it easier than using git add -i   Other git GUIs  like QGit or GitX  might also have this functionality as well

User · Answer

When I have a lot of changes  and will end up creating a few commits from the changes  then I want to save my starting point temporarily before staging things   Like this     git stash -u Saved working directory and index state WIP on master  47a1413       git checkout -p stash     step through patch hunks   git commit -m  message for 1st commit    git checkout -p stash     step through patch hunks   git commit -m  message for 2nd commit    git stash pop   Whymarrh s answer is what I usually do  except sometimes there are lots of changes and I can tell I might make a mistake while staging things  and I want a committed state I can fall back on for a second pass

User · Answer

vim-gitgutter plugin can stage hunks without leaving vim editor using   GitGutterStageHunk   Beside this  it provides other cool features like a diff sign column as in some modern IDEs  If only part of hunk should be staged vim-fugitive   Gdiff   allows visual range selection then    lt    gt diffput or    lt    gt diffget to stage revert individual line changes

User · Answer

If you are using vim  you may want to try the excellent plugin called fugitive   You can see the diff of a file between working copy and index with  Gdiff  and then add lines or hunks to the index using classic vim diff commands like dp  Save the modifications in the index and commit with  Gcommit  and you re done   Very good introductory screencasts here  see esp  part 2

User · Answer

I would strongly recommend using SourceTree from Atlassian   It s free   It makes this trivial  You can stage individual hunks of code or individual lines of code quickly and easily

User · Answer

For Atom users  the package github includes interactive staging  in the style of git gui  For shortcuts see the package s documentation   Using Atom allows working with a theme that has dark background  by default  git gui has a white background

User · Answer

I believe that git add -e myfile is the easiest way  my preference at least  since it simply opens a text editor and lets you choose which line you want to stage and which line you don t  Regarding editing commands   added content      Added content is represented by lines beginning with      You can prevent staging any addition lines by deleting them    removed content      Removed content is represented by lines beginning with  -   You can prevent staging their removal by converting the  -  to a      space     modified content      Modified content is represented by  -  lines  removing the old content  followed by     lines  adding the replacement content   You can prevent staging the modification by converting  -  lines to      and removing                  lines  Beware that modifying only half of the pair is likely to introduce confusing changes to the index    Every details about git add are available on git --help add

User · Answer

git-meld-index -- quoting from the website   git-meld-index runs meld -- or any other git difftool  kdiff3  diffuse  etc   -- to allow you to interactively stage changes to the git index  also known as the git staging area    This is similar to the functionality of git add -p  and git add --interactive  In some cases meld is easier   quicker to use than git add -p  That s because meld allows you  for example  to    see more context see intra-line diffs edit by hand and see  live  diff updates  updated after every keypress  navigate to a change without saying  n  to every change you want to skip   Usage  In a git repository  run   git meld-index   You ll see meld  or your configured git difftool  pop up with   LEFT  temporary directory contining files copied from your working tree  RIGHT  temporary directory with the contents of the index  This also includes files that are not yet in the index but are modified or untracked in the working copy -- in this case you ll see the file contents from HEAD   Edit the index  right hand side  until happy  Remember to save when needed   When you re done  close meld  and git-meld-index will update the index to match the contents of the temporary directory on the right hand side of meld that you just edited

User · Answer

Worth noting that to use git add --patch for a new file you need to first add the file to index with git add --intent-to-add   git add -N file git add -p file

User · Answer

As one answer above shows  you can use   git add --patch filename txt   or the short-form   git add -p filename txt       but for files already in you repository  there is  in s are much better off using --patch flag on the commit command directly  if you are using a recent enough version of git     git commit --patch filename txt        or  again  the short-form   git commit -p filename txt       and then using the mentioned keys   y n etc   for choosing lines to be included in the commit

User · Answer

It s been 10 years since this question was asked  And I hope this answer will be useful to someone  As mentioned in the answer here  where GUI is not an option  Andrew Shadura s crecord extension helps bring a ncurses window in which we can select the lines to commit   Set up the extension as follows   git clone https   github com andrewshadura git-crecord cd git-crecord   setup py install ln -s  PWD git-crecord    local bin git-crecord   cd to your git repo and invoke it as follows   git crecord   This would bring up the ncurses interface which can be used as shown below  Pressing the following keys in the ncurses window will do certain actions   f       hunk toggle fold  arrow keys can also be used  space   toggle hunk selection a       toggle commit or amend c       confirm and open commit window   Screencast showing a sample usage

[git] Commit only part of a file in Git

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