How should I structure my git commits?

Question

I'm trying to contribute to open source software for the first time, but I'm pretty inexperienced with version control systems. In particular, right now I want to make a number of changes to different parts of the code, but I'm not sure if the maintainer would want to integrate all of them into the master repository. However, the changes I'll be making are independent, i.e. they affect different parts of the file, or parts of different files.

How should I go about making the changes? If I make a string of commits on the same branch, will the maintainer be able to pick and choose what he wants from the individual commit? E.g. can he patch in the changes I made in my second commit while ignoring the first one? Or should I make each change in a separate branch?

Edit: Maybe I should mention that I'm looking at github in particular.

Answer 1

Depends on the project, but it's usual for new contributors to prepare patches and send them to the maintainer(s) or to specially-designated reviewers. If your changes are unrelated then they probably ought to be separate patches.

Answer 2

Make the changes feature wise and commit them that way: each complete feature has separate commit. Even if it touches several files.

Then you can send patches for these complete features - that will ease merging if eg. project maintainer will agree only to some of the stuff you implemented.