DVCS - How often and when to commit changes

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There is another thread here on StackOverflow, dealing wih how often to commit changes to source control. I want to put that in the context of using a DVCS like git or mercurial.

  1. How often and when do you commit?

  2. Do you only commit changes when they build correctly?

  3. How often and when do you push your changes (or file a pull request or similar)?

  4. How do you approac developing a complex feature / doing a complex refactoring requiring many places to be touched? Are "private commits" that won't build ok? When finished, do you push them also to the master repository or do you bundle all your changes into a single changeset before pushing?

commit dvcs
5 Answers

I'd commit changes to my DVCS (my own topic or task branch) very, very often, this way I can use it not only for "delivering changes" but also to help me while I work: like "why this was working 5 minutes ago and it's not working anymore?" If you commit often you can just run a diff.

Also, a technique I found very, very good is using it to "self-document refactors". Let me explain: if you've to do a big refactor on a topic branch and then review the change as a whole (having modified a nice set of files), you'd probably get lost. But, suppose you checkin on every "intermediate step" and document it with a comment, then you're creating some sort of "movie" of your own changes helping to describe what you've done! Huge for reviewers.

pablo_724560
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