git: update a php-script but keep own changes

Question

I'm tracking my changes on a PHP-software with git. I have only a master branch and about 10 commits, the first commit was the original version 1.0 of the software.

Now I saw, that the owner of the PHP-software released version 1.1.

What is the best an easiest way for me, to update the software, but keep my own changes too and merge them with git mergetool? Should I use patches or create another branch with the untouched version updates?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Typical approach is to create a branch with local changes (say "local") on top of the software:

git checkout origin/master
git checkout -b local
....edit files....
git commit

now whenever there is upstream update, you can easily reapply changes using rebase:

git fetch
git rebase origin/master

If you already have some merge history in master branch, try doing it raw and use 'git diff' to produce a complete patch of your work against upstream -- such package can be simply applied even without git tools.

Answer 2

I would probably use the stash for this. Just call git stash, pull the changes and run git stash pop which will reapply your stashed changes. Creating your own branch and merging it back after update is definitely the way too.