It&#x27;s probably the same idea as the one behind committing once in Mercurial and then using commit --amend repeatedly as you refine the changes. Git&#x27;s method sounds like it avoids a pitfall in that method by holding your last changeset in a special area rather than dumping it into a commit so that you can&#x27;t accidentally push it.<p>I often amend my latest commit as a way to build a set of changes without losing my latest functional change.