When you're updating cocoapods, you can update a single pod or all pods, either pod update or pod update <podname>. In both cases, it updates the configuration of the project, xcconfig files, and other things that impact all pods. If you specify a pod, it then updates that one pod. If you don't specify a pod, it updates all the pods.
Is there a way to update just this other stuff without updating any pods so I can commit that separately to git?
My workaround so far has been to find a pod that hasn't been updated and pod update that pod. I get all the new project settings, new configuration, etc. with no actual pod changes. But that relies on finding (and having) a pod that hasn't changed.
pod install will not change any versions for pods that are already in the Podfile.lock.