You don't sync your personal branch, "mybranch" with remote branch unless required, you can cherry pick commits too. When you create a patch by merge --squash this would create a single patch that is difference between the branch on which you're squashing/merging and your personal branch, so this would get all the new commits as one. Other way to squash is to use git rebase -i HEAD~5 (this will let you interactively rebase last five commits), say you've four commits/changes, you squash them into one commit by changing the "pick" to "squash" and rebasing.
If your new changes rely on code from remote branch, git pull them on to your local branch tracking the remote branch and cherry pick commits to your personal "mybranch", after you're done, you can squash them. Other ways are you do this; git pull --rebase origin x (x is the remote branch, and you're in your personal "mybranch"). Goto 2. For your last question, you actually created a branch called api-refactor that tracks a remote branch "api_refactoring" (so you actually created a local branch with a different name, I usually keep same names for local branches that track remote ones) which is fine. Now do: 1. git checkout -b <my new feature branch name on api_refactoring> # this is your personal branch off api-refactor 1a. git am <prev patches or wip patches> 2. git add/commit new changes, no code in staging area (nothing that requires to be committed) 3. Once you're done, git checkout api-refactor and git pull origin api_refactoring (switch to the local branch tracking remote one and gets latest code), next git checkout -b tempsquash 4. Create a single patch for review: git merge --squash "mybranch" # this can have merge conflicts which is fine, this saves the reviewer handling merge conflicts if you handle it yourself here 5. Create patch and send for review; git format-patch -o patches HEAD~1 Hope this helps. ________________________________________ From: Min Chen [min.chen@citrix Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 11:04 AM To: cloudstack-dev@incubator.apache.org Cc: cloudstack-dev@incubator.apache.org Subject: Re: Need help in updating patch for Review Request Thanks Rohit. Two more questions: 1. In your step 6, when I go back to "my ranch" to make more changes, do i need to make "mybranch" sync with remote branch? what if my new changes rely on new code from remote branch? In my case, my new changes are adding new unit tests which relies on a change of pom.xml . 2. Currently I have implemented all my changes on a local branch created using Git checkout -b api-refactor origin/api_refactoring What should I do now? -min Sent from my iPhone On Nov 28, 2012, at 6:59 PM, "Rohit Yadav" <rohit.ya...@citrix.com> wrote: > Min, here how my workflow is now irrespective of the fact that one can commit > or not this works for me: > > 0. Rule 0, you never ever work on the branch that tracks a remote branch, > i.e. on master or on api_refactoring for example. > 1. Say I want to work on a branch x (can be master, can be api_refactoring), > I create my own personal branch; git checkout x; git checkout -b mybranch > 2. I work on my branch "mybranch", add commit, there may be 100 commits, does > not matter. > 3. Time to send it for review? git checkout master or git checkout x > (remember x was your local branch that tracks a remote branch); git pull > origin x; > create a merge branch, a merge branch is basically a temporary branch where > you would squash all your 100 commits from your "mybranch" to one commit: > git checkout -b mysquashbranch > 4. Time to squash all 100 commits to one commit: > git merge --squash "mybranch" (you're on the mysquashbranch) > 5. git format patch -o <dir> HEAD~1, email or post on review board > 6. Goto 2. make changes as suggested by reviewer. If patch accepted, stop. > > Hope this helps. > > On 28-Nov-2012, at 5:55 PM, Min Chen <min.c...@citrix.com> wrote: > >> Hi there, >> >> I have been following instructions in >> http://incubator.apache.org/cloudstack/develop/non-contributors.html to >> create patch for API refactoring work I have been working on. The >> instruction may work well for the ideal case where the patch is quickly >> approved by review board, but here is my scenario that I am stuck at >> updating my patch: >> 1. I have created a private branch with an up-to-date copy of remote branch >> (api_refactoring) at time A, and done my work there, and created a patch >> using "git format-patch master --stdout > ~/patch-name.patch', and uploaded >> it to create a review request, this is perfectly fine. >> 2. Reviewer reviewed it and provided some feedback that I need to address. >> 3. Then I am working on addressing the feedback on my private branch and >> done, need to update the patch for another review. >> 4. Just at the same time, remote api_refactoring branch is synced with >> master branch and bring in a lot of new commits that are missing in my >> private branch created at time A when I started my api refactoring work. >> 5. So I have to sync my private branch to pull in latest code from remote >> api_refactoring and merge conflicts. >> 6. After all these, what command should I use to create an updated patch for >> review board? The documented command "git format-patch master --stdout > >> ~/patch-name.patch" will generate a patch file with all those commits >> brought in from master sync, and also uploading the generated patch to >> review board will give out error. >> >> Really appreciate that somebody can provide a quick tip on this. I keep >> running into such issues by working on a separate non-master branch. >> >> Thanks >> -min >
