On Mon, Jan 28 2008 at 11:32 +0200, "Paolo Ciarrocchi" <paolo.ciarrocchi@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jan 28, 2008 10:25 AM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>> "Paolo Ciarrocchi" <paolo.ciarrocchi@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> I know ho to do the opposite process, rebase -i and squash is something
>>> I'm really used to do but this time that trick is not going to help me.
>>>
>>> What is the preferred way to split a big patch in a series of
>>> smaller patches?
>>
>> I personally found the procedure described there a bit on the
>> sketchy side, but does "SPLITTING COMMITS" section of git-rebase
>> manual help?
> 
> Yes it helps but I still wonder whether thereis a "simpler" way to achive that.
> Is it possible to split a patch selecting the hunk in git gui or any
> other graphical
> tool?
> 
> That would be a good starting point for a newbie (like me).
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Ciao,
What I do is edit the patch, let me explain.
- I create a new branch based at the base of the big patch. Now
  I have the original branch for reference. Lets say the original
  branch is called ALL, and this new branch SPLIT. and BASE is the base.
- # git-checkout -b SPLIT BASE
- # git-diff -R ALL >edit-the-patch-001.patch
- now I open the patch file with an editor. I use kwrite because of
  the good color highlighting.
- I remove all the hunks that I don't need, and am left with only the
  parts that I want to be in the first patch.
- I save the patch.
- If at the edit stage I have changed a big hunk and only used part
  of it I need to run fixpatch script attached below. If I only removed
  complete hunks then I'm good to go.
- I now use:
  # patch -p 1 < edit-the-patch-001.patch
- # git-commit -a
- and git-commit --amend until the first patch is good
- now do the 
  # git-diff -R ALL >edit-the-patch-002.patch
  and so on until there is nothing left. It is nice how
  every time it gets smaller and smaller.

[fixpatch command line]
usage: fixpatch inputfile outputfile
what I do is just
# fixpatch edit-the-patch-001.patch{,}

Boaz