How to generate patch for all commits in a branch?

GitGit BranchGit Patch

Git Problem Overview


How can I generate patch for all commits in a given branch by knowing only the branch name?

This step is part of a complex workflow all of which is being automated. Hence requiring someone to manually determine the first commit in the branch is not an option.

Note that anything relying on reflog is not an option either because changes in the branch are not made locally.

Git Solutions


Solution 1 - Git

If you know from which branch your "given branch" has been created, then making a patch is easy:

git diff master Branch1 > ../patchfile
git checkout Branch2    
git apply ../patchfile

(and you can generate a patch applicable without git too)

But finding the right "creation commit" of a branch can be complex: see "Finding a branch point with Git?"

The OP akirekadu used:

git format-patch $(git merge-base --fork-point master)..branchB 

You can see it used in "git diff between working copy and branch base"

legends2k adds in the comments:

> One can verify the generated patch with git apply --stat patchfile
This won't apply, but give the details of the patch.


Warning: AGP notes in the comments that:

> $(git merge-base --fork-point master)..branchB command may not find the correct branch root revision every time


ijoseph points out in the comments

> Incidentally, Phabricator handles this kind of stuff seamlessly by automatically generating those patch files for each push.

Solution 2 - Git

IF you have already committed and pushed your changes are now you want to create a patch file.

This will create a patch in 1 file even if you have multiple commits in that branch

STEP1: Do checkout the branch whose patch you want like any feature/bug branch
ex: git checkout <branch>

STEP2: Now this will create a patch for all commits diff with master branch with your checkout branch i.e the above branch you have checkout.

git format-patch master --stdout > mypatch.patch

Attributions

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Content TypeOriginal AuthorOriginal Content on Stackoverflow
QuestionakirekaduView Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - GitVonCView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Gitshashikant kuswahaView Answer on Stackoverflow