How to stage hunks or do patches with the but CLI?

[dssgabriel]

There are plenty of examples in both videos and the docs on staging files using the CLI, but none that show how to stage hunks.

The but stage docs say:

Stages a file or hunk to a specific branch.

Usage: but stage [OPTIONS] <FILE_OR_HUNK> <BRANCH>

Arguments:
  <FILE_OR_HUNK>  File or hunk ID to stage
  <BRANCH>        Branch ID to stage to

Options:
  -j, --json  Whether to use JSON output format
  -h, --help  Print help (see more with '--help')

The but diff output does not show any IDs for selecting specific hunks, only a file ID:

────────────────────╮
p0 docs/api/core.rst│
────────────────────╯
   106 106│
   107 107│ .. cpp:namespace:: KokkosComm
   108 108│
   109    │-.. cpp:class:: template <CommunicationSpace CommSpace = DefaultCommSpace> Req
       109│+.. cpp:class:: template <CommunicationSpace CommSpace = DefaultCommSpace> Request
   110 110│
   111    │-    A template class to handle requests with different communication backend types.
       111│+    Template class for request wrappers of different communication space types.
   112 112│
   113 113│     :tparam CommSpace: The communication backend to use. Defaults to ``DefaultCommunicationSpace``.
       114│+
       115│+Common interfaces
       116│+-----------------

So I don't know how to achieve this.

Moreover, is it possible to do something similar to git add -p (with the but CLI) for only selecting some of the lines in a file or hunk? This is the killer feature I use all the time in TUIs like lazygit and that I'd really want to have in GitButler 🙂

Thanks in advance!

[Byron]

Thanks a lot for bringing this up. This probably is a shortcoming in our docs and we might want to highlight this more.

Does this section help? It mentions but status -f and but diff to get hunk ids?

[ilyapoz]

Sorry, but it does not clear it up for me at all. This doc mentions hunk ids, but nowhere to find them. but status -f shows files, but not separate hunks in them. I could not find what a hunk ID is anywhere on the internet, each tool has its specific approach and I'm not sure what githubler's is.

[Byron]

Maybe @krlvi can help you out.

[dssgabriel]

Sorry for the late answer. Yes, this clears it up!

I found that you could achieve what I was trying to do with but commit -p. I thought it was confusing at first, since in pure git you would stage your hunks with add -p before committing these hunks, which is backwards in GitButler 😅