Creating pull requests

Removing unwanted commits / changes

Sometimes we create branches and pull requests that includes too many commits. We are working fast so it's possible to switch branch and forget some history that comes from another ongoing work or branch.

In order to only include the commits relevant to your PR you can use the git cherry-pick [commit-sha] command.

Example

• Issue: PR contains 2 commits, only 1 is relevant for the built feature. We want to keep the second commit 00812360d9afa433138fc02b2a292b350dd48f4c

• Solution: New branch with cherry-pick. Another solution would be to git push -f if the origin PR branch is yours

  git fetch origin
  git checkout staging && git reset --hard origin/staging
  git checkout -b {my-branch-cleaned}
  
  # for each commit you want to keep
  git cherry-pick {commit sha}
  
  # check history is what you want
  git push origin {my-branch-cleaned}
  
  # then close old PR and open new one

  Alternatively, if you feel confident, you can override your existing Pull Request

  git checkout -b {my-branch}
  git fetch origin
  git reset --hard origin/staging
  
  # for each commit you want to keep
  git cherry-pick {commit sha}
  
  # check history is what you want
  git push -f origin {my-branch}

Result