How to Merge Feature Branch into DEV Without Incorporating Existing DEV Changes?

[Seungjun-bob]

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I’m working on a branching strategy involving a DEV branch and a PROD branch. Here’s the situation I’m facing:

1. I have a DEV branch that already contains changes from multiple feature branches: 1, 2, and 3.
2. I created a new branch (4) from PROD to work on new changes.
3. After completing the changes in branch 4, I need to merge it into DEV for testing.
4. However, when I attempt to merge 4 into DEV, I encounter merge conflicts. Upon resolving the conflicts, I notice that the changes from DEV (1, 2, and 3) are being pulled into 4.

My goal: I want to test 4 in DEV without incorporating the existing changes (1, 2, 3) into branch 4. Ultimately, I need to keep 4 independent so that I can merge it into PROD later without including changes from DEV.

Question: Is there a way to merge 4 into DEV for testing purposes while keeping 4 independent of the other changes present in DEV? How can I achieve this in Git or GitHub while maintaining a clean and independent 4 branch for future PROD merges?

Any advice or best practices would be greatly appreciated!