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Context:

I have created a branch (let's call it new-feature), based off master. I plan to create a pull request that will remain open over the next few months.

During this time, I will be doing feature development by branching off of new-feature. Once a branch has been reviewed and approved, I will create a pull request to merge that bit of work into new-feature

When all is said and done, new-feature will be merged into master.

My question:

Let's say one of my new-feature child branches (let's call it child-branch-1) contains a change that also needs to be merged into master BEFORE new-feature is merged into master?

Am I able to use a single branch for this change, creating 2 separate pull requests (1 PR to merge the change into master, and another PR to merge the change into new-feature, respectively), or is it better to use 2 different branches (1 based off of master, and 1 based off of new-feature, with a PR for each) to accomplish this?

asw1984
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2 Answers2

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Let's say one of my new-feature child branches (let's call it child-branch-1) contains a change that also needs to be merged into master BEFORE new-feature is merged into master?

That branch child-branch-1 includes the history (in part) of new-feature.

You cannot merge child-branch-1 as-is to master, because it includes too much.

  • make a new branch from upstream/master (with upstream being the remote of the original repository you have forked)
  • git cherry-pick one or several commits from child-branch-1 to that new branch
  • make a separate PR from the new branch which, again, only includes the commits relevant to your "urgent" change.
VonC
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I would firstly merge child-branch-1 to master. Once I did that, I would then make a pull from master to new-feature that way you'd have the change you need in new-feature and the children of such branch would have the change too.

Since you need to have child-branch-1 in master before you put it in new-feature, I think it's better to get child-branch-1 from master instead of taking it from new-feature.

I'm speaking about this thinking of it as a simple general case, your personal case may be more complicated though. It may be possible that you need some things from child-branch-1 to go to master, and some other things to go to new-feature. If that's case, I would use another approach, maybe you can tell us a few more details about your issue.

Leonardo Herrera Ornelas
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