title: Applying the changes from branch A to B, without merging or adding commits
body: <p>My scenario is that I have one branch in which I've made big improvements to the build process (branch A) and in another I'm working on a unrelated feature (branch B). So now when I'm hacking away at branch B, I want to pull in the stuff I wrote in branch A because I want faster and easier builds. However, I don't want to "pollute" my branch B, just add changes from branchA to unstaged changes. </p>
  
  <p>What I've tried (when standing on branchB):</p>
  
  <pre><code>git merge --no-commit branchA
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Doesn't work because it puts you inside a merge. If it didn't, it would be perfect.</p>
  
  <pre><code>git checkout branchA -- .
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Doesn't work because it applies changes between branchA..branchB and not the changes master..branchA.</p>
  
  <p>Anything else?</p>
  
  <p>Edit: Yes, changes on branch A are committed. In this example there is only one branch with build improvements, but there may be up to N branches with build improvements that I want to apply while working on a feature branch. </p>