[kwlug-disc] git: merging some but not all commits

[Paul Nijjar]

I am sure this is a completely standard question, but you know me.

I have a git repo (for a website that I did not create) which has some
configuration options checked into git. Let's call this branch
'master'. 

I want to have a development version of the website on my laptop. To
do this, I have to change some of these configuration options. 
I made a new branch (let's call it 'devel') and checked it out. Then I
made the changes to my configuration files until I got a local version
of the website working. 

Let's say I check those changes into the 'devel' branch as commit
'abcdef' . (This may be a terrible idea.) 

I want to do some development. I make some more changes to the
devel branch and check them in. Hooray! 

Now it is time to merge the changes I made from devel to master. If I
naively git merge then I will get commit abcdef, which merges in
config options for development, which screws everything up for
production. Oh no!

I can cherry-pick commits from devel and merge them to master, but
that seems gross and error-prone. Is there a better way for me to
merge the changes from devel into master, EXCLUDING a set of commits
hat I never want merged? I am happy to make additional branches off
of devel if that helps. I do not think that keeping all the
configuration differences between master and devel out of git is
feasible. 

What is the right workflow for this situation? How should I be setting
things up?

- Paul
-- 
http://pnijjar.freeshell.org