How Split a Commit in CLI
Learn how to split a large commit with Stacked PRs CLI in our guide. Improve code review quality, keep a clean Git history, and improve code velocity.
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Learn how to split a large commit with Stacked PRs CLI in our guide. Improve code review quality, keep a clean Git history, and improve code velocity.
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Aviator CLI helps you splitting a large commit.
Check out the commit that you want to split
Run av split-commit
Select diff hunks to add to the first commit. This is the same as git add -p
A commit editor pops open with the original commit message prefilled.
git add -p and git commit are repeatedly called until there's no diff hunks left.
In this example, we will split the following commit into two: First commit should have changes to db.go, and the second commit should have changes to api.go. Currently, the changes are made in one commit.
We run av split-commit. It prompts you whether you want to add the presented diff hunk to the first commit. In this example, we want to include only changes to db.go, so we respond with n for the changes to api.go, and y for the changes to db.go.
After choosing which parts should go to the first commit, it prompts you to enter a commit message. The commit message is pre-populated with the original commit's message that you want to split.
Once you update the commit message, close the editor.
Since there are changes that aren't committed to the first commit, we will continue with choosing what to include in the second commit. It prompts you which diff hunks to be in the second commit.
This time, we want to add all the changes to api.go, so respond with y for all.
It pops open an editor for the commit message of the second commit. Update, save, and close the editor.
At this point, we split all diff hunks to commits. The av split-commit command exits, and you can see that the original commit is split into two.
You might want to stop the splitting process sometimes. Even in that case, your branch is safe. The av split-commit command will not touch the branch until the entire process finishes.
When a command is cancelled in the middle, it shows a command on how to get back to the original state when you start av split-commit. Simply run git switch --discard-changes $BRANCH_NAME will get you back to where you were.
Under the hood, this runs git add --patch. Please see for the detailed usage.
