Selective patching

Question

Hi,

I have a folder and a patch for that folder. Now, I do not want to include every change made in the patch in my commit. I can select which files I want to exclude in Subclipse, but can I do the same with only certain lines in those files?

Answer 1

You could probably edit the patch file, or apply the patch and then copy the originals back from another unchanged copy of the original files in a seperate folder. Personally, I would probably commit my work in git, apply the patch (without using git) and then use git to only commit the changes I liked, or to reset files I didn't like changes in.

Oh, sorry, you're using subversion, I just realised. Didn't mean to offend by suggesting a different solution. I'm sure subversion allows a similar approach.

Answer 2

You can patch your working copy, then remove those parts you don't want before committing. Use the diff command to see the differences between the patched parts and the previous version in your working copy.

Basically, you're using the patch to modify your current files, then modifying them again to exclude the unwanted lines.