How can I make an individual commit message for each file (or even each part of a file) that has changed since the last commit

Question

My preferred routine is to stage and commit my changed files all at once:

git commit -a
# enter commit message via editor

This works great when all of my changes are related to each other. However, when there are several unrelated changes (i.e. I forgot to make commits for each one), it makes for a lengthy commit message. In these cases, I'd rather have an individual commit message for each file, or even a separate commit message per change when there are multiple unrelated changes within a file. How can I do that?

Note: Difference between this and How do I commit only some files?

My question is different because it also addresses multiple commits within a file.

General practice in this case would be to make a commit every time you complete one of those changes. — Tomas Smagurauskas, Jun 15 '16 at 16:22
@TomasSmagurauskas Yes, of course that is the best practice. But sometimes I forget to commit. Updated question to include this fact. Great comment! — Christopher Bottoms, Jun 15 '16 at 16:25
Possible duplicate of [How do I commit only some files?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7239333/how-do-i-commit-only-some-files) — Jeff Puckett, Jun 15 '16 at 17:35

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:03

5

If you want to add a whole file, then use

git add file.txt

If you have separate changes within the same document that you want in separate commits, use a patch for selecting hunks

git add -p

When in interactive mode, if the hunks are too big, then you can split them by pressing S

After splitting, if you find that the hunks still aren't granular enough, then see my answer about manually editing it to create precision patches.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:03

Community

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answered Jun 15 '16 at 17:32

Jeff Puckett

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`git add -p` works very well. I just used it. Thanks! – Christopher Bottoms Jul 08 '16 at 14:57

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:29

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Simply run git stage and git commit separately for each file:

git stage file1.txt
git commit
# use editor to type reasons for changing file1.txt

git stage file2.txt
git commit
# use editor to type reasons for changing file2.txt

See Jeff Puckett II's answer for how to commit sub-file level changes.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:29

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answered Jun 15 '16 at 16:21

Christopher Bottoms

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David Neiss · Answer 3 · 2016-06-16T00:37:03.857

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You can also do a git add -i for an interactive staging, which lets you have fine grained control over what is introduced into the index. There is a full explanation of this option in the help output for git add and also a nice writeup at https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Interactive-Staging

edited Jun 16 '16 at 00:37

answered Jun 15 '16 at 17:56

David Neiss

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Interactive staging is a really nice feature I didn't know about previously. Thanks! – Christopher Bottoms Jun 15 '16 at 22:55

How can I make an individual commit message for each file (or even each part of a file) that has changed since the last commit

Note: Difference between this and How do I commit only some files?

3 Answers3