Commit Only Part of a File’s Changes in Git

Better Stack Team
Updated on June 24, 2024

To commit only part of a file's changes in Git, you can use the git add -p or git add --patch command, which allows you to interactively select portions of the file to stage for the next commit. Here's how you can do it:

Step 1: Stage Partial Changes

 
git add -p <file>

Replace <file> with the path to the file you want to stage partial changes from.

Step 2: Interactively Select Changes

After running the command, Git will display a prompt showing the hunks of changes within the file. You'll have several options for each hunk, such as:

  • y: Stage this hunk for the next commit.
  • n: Do not stage this hunk.
  • s: Split this hunk into smaller hunks.
  • e: Manually edit this hunk.
  • q: Quit the interactive mode.

Choose the appropriate option for each hunk to select the changes you want to include in the next commit.

Step 3: Commit Staged Changes

After selecting the desired changes, you can commit the staged changes as usual:

 
git commit -m "Your commit message"

This will commit only the changes that you staged using git add -p.

Note:

  • git add -p allows you to selectively stage changes within a file, making it useful for committing only specific parts of a file while leaving the rest unchanged.
  • This method is helpful when you've made changes to multiple sections of a file and only want to commit a subset of those changes.
  • After staging the changes, you can review them using git diff --cached to ensure that you're committing the correct changes.
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