How to add a changed file to an older (not last) commit in Git
I have changed several things over the last hour and committed them step by step, but I just realized I've forgot to add a changed file some commits ago.
The Log looks like this:
GIT TidyUpRequests u:1 d:0> git log
commit fc6734b6351f6c36a587dba6dbd9d5efa30c09ce
Author: David Klein <>
Date: Tue Apr 27 09:43:55 2010 +0200
The Main program now tests both Webservices at once
commit 8a2c6014c2b035e37aebd310a6393a1ecb39f463
Author: David Klein <>
Date: Tue Apr 27 09:43:27 2010 +0200
ISBNDBQueryHandler now uses the XPath functions from XPath.fs too
commit 06a504e277fd98d97eed4dad22dfa5933d81451f
Author: David Klein <>
Date: Tue Apr 27 09:30:34 2010 +0200
AmazonQueryHandler now uses the XPath Helper functions defined in XPath.fs
commit a0865e28be35a3011d0b6091819ec32922dd2dd8 <--- changed file should go here
Author: David Klein <>
Date: Tue Apr 27 09:29:53 2010 +0200
Factored out some common XPath Operations
Any ideas?
Use git rebase . Specifically:
git stash to store the changes you want to add. git rebase -i HEAD~10 (or whatever you need to see far enough back). a0865... ) for edit by changing the word pick at the start of the line into edit . Don't delete the other lines as that would delete the commits. Note: ^ git stash pop git add . git commit --amend . git rebase --continue which will rewrite the rest of your commits against the new one. ^ (If you are using the shell then you will have to hit the Insert key to edit, then Esc and type in :wq to save and apply.
To "fix" an old commit with a small change, without changing the commit message of the old commit, where OLDCOMMIT is something like 091b73a :
git add <my fixed files>
git commit --fixup=OLDCOMMIT
git rebase --interactive --autosquash OLDCOMMIT^
You can also use git commit --squash=OLDCOMMIT to edit the old commit message during rebase.
git rebase --interactive will bring up a text editor (which can be configured) to confirm (or edit) the rebase instruction sequence. There is info for rebase instruction changes in the file; just save and quit the editor ( :wq in vim ) to continue with the rebase. --autosquash will automatically put any --fixup=OLDCOMMIT commits in the desired order. Note that --autosquash is only valid when the --interactive option is used. ^ in OLDCOMMIT^ means it's a reference to the commit just before OLDCOMMIT . The above steps are good for verification and/or modifying the rebase instruction sequence, but it's also possible to skip/automate the interactive rebase text editor by:
GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR to a script. See git commit and git rebase. As always, when rewriting git history, you should only fixup or squash commits you have not yet published to anyone else (including random internet users and build servers).
with git 1.7, there's a really easy way using git rebase :
stage your files:
git add $files
create a new commit and re-use commit message of your "broken" commit
git commit -c master~4
prepend fixup! in the subject line (or squash! if you want to edit commit (message)):
fixup! Factored out some common XPath Operations
use git rebase -i --autosquash to fixup your commit