The way I avoid problems like this is: 1 - Always do new work in a branch off whatever branch you plan to commit to eventually. 2 - commit often 3 - Use reba

The way I avoid problems like this is: 1 - Always do new work in a branch off whatever branch you plan to commit to eventually. 2 - commit often 3 - Use rebase -i to squash commits when everything is looking good 4 - Use rebase parent-branch to replay your commits on top of whatever new stuff is in the parent and resolve any conflicts 5 - Only then go back and merge the working branch back into the parent-branch