git-cherry-pick(1)
NAME
git-cherry-pick - Apply the changes introduced by some existing commits
SYNOPSIS
git cherry-pick [--edit] [-n] [-m parent-number] [-s] [-x] [--ff]
[-S[<keyid>]] <commit>...
git cherry-pick --continue
git cherry-pick --quit
git cherry-pick --abort
DESCRIPTION
Given one or more existing commits, apply the change each one
introduces, recording a new commit for each. This requires your working
tree to be clean (no modifications from the HEAD commit).
When it is not obvious how to apply a change, the following happens:
1. The current branch and HEAD pointer stay at the last commit
successfully made.
2. The CHERRY_PICK_HEAD ref is set to point at the commit that
introduced the change that is difficult to apply.
3. Paths in which the change applied cleanly are updated both in the
index file and in your working tree.
4. For conflicting paths, the index file records up to three versions,
as described in the "TRUE MERGE" section of git-merge(1). The
working tree files will include a description of the conflict
bracketed by the usual conflict markers <<<<<<< and >>>>>>>.
5. No other modifications are made.
See git-merge(1) for some hints on resolving such conflicts.
OPTIONS
<commit>...
Commits to cherry-pick. For a more complete list of ways to spell
commits, see gitrevisions(7). Sets of commits can be passed but no
traversal is done by default, as if the --no-walk option was
specified, see git-rev-list(1). Note that specifying a range will
feed all <commit>... arguments to a single revision walk (see a
later example that uses maint master..next).
-e, --edit
With this option, git cherry-pick will let you edit the commit
message prior to committing.
-x
When recording the commit, append a line that says "(cherry picked
from commit ...)" to the original commit message in order to
indicate which commit this change was cherry-picked from. This is
done only for cherry picks without conflicts. Do not use this
option if you are cherry-picking from your private branch because
the information is useless to the recipient. If on the other hand
you are cherry-picking between two publicly visible branches (e.g.
backporting a fix to a maintenance branch for an older release from
a development branch), adding this information can be useful.
-r
It used to be that the command defaulted to do -x described above,
and -r was to disable it. Now the default is not to do -x so this
option is a no-op.
-m parent-number, --mainline parent-number
Usually you cannot cherry-pick a merge because you do not know
which side of the merge should be considered the mainline. This
option specifies the parent number (starting from 1) of the
mainline and allows cherry-pick to replay the change relative to
the specified parent.
-n, --no-commit
Usually the command automatically creates a sequence of commits.
This flag applies the changes necessary to cherry-pick each named
commit to your working tree and the index, without making any
commit. In addition, when this option is used, your index does not
have to match the HEAD commit. The cherry-pick is done against the
beginning state of your index.
This is useful when cherry-picking more than one commits' effect to
your index in a row.
-s, --signoff
Add Signed-off-by line at the end of the commit message. See the
signoff option in git-commit(1) for more information.
-S[<keyid>], --gpg-sign[=<keyid>]
GPG-sign commits. The keyid argument is optional and defaults to
the committer identity; if specified, it must be stuck to the
option without a space.
--ff
If the current HEAD is the same as the parent of the cherry-pick'ed
commit, then a fast forward to this commit will be performed.
--allow-empty
By default, cherry-picking an empty commit will fail, indicating
that an explicit invocation of git commit --allow-empty is
required. This option overrides that behavior, allowing empty
commits to be preserved automatically in a cherry-pick. Note that
when "--ff" is in effect, empty commits that meet the
"fast-forward" requirement will be kept even without this option.
Note also, that use of this option only keeps commits that were
initially empty (i.e. the commit recorded the same tree as its
parent). Commits which are made empty due to a previous commit are
dropped. To force the inclusion of those commits use
--keep-redundant-commits.
--allow-empty-message
By default, cherry-picking a commit with an empty message will
fail. This option overrides that behavior, allowing commits with
empty messages to be cherry picked.
--keep-redundant-commits
If a commit being cherry picked duplicates a commit already in the
current history, it will become empty. By default these redundant
commits cause cherry-pick to stop so the user can examine the
commit. This option overrides that behavior and creates an empty
commit object. Implies --allow-empty.
--strategy=<strategy>
Use the given merge strategy. Should only be used once. See the
MERGE STRATEGIES section in git-merge(1) for details.
-X<option>, --strategy-option=<option>
Pass the merge strategy-specific option through to the merge
strategy. See git-merge(1) for details.
SEQUENCER SUBCOMMANDS
--continue
Continue the operation in progress using the information in
.git/sequencer. Can be used to continue after resolving conflicts
in a failed cherry-pick or revert.
--quit
Forget about the current operation in progress. Can be used to
clear the sequencer state after a failed cherry-pick or revert.
--abort
Cancel the operation and return to the pre-sequence state.
EXAMPLES
git cherry-pick master
Apply the change introduced by the commit at the tip of the master
branch and create a new commit with this change.
git cherry-pick ..master, git cherry-pick ^HEAD master
Apply the changes introduced by all commits that are ancestors of
master but not of HEAD to produce new commits.
git cherry-pick maint next ^master, git cherry-pick maint master..next
Apply the changes introduced by all commits that are ancestors of
maint or next, but not master or any of its ancestors. Note that
the latter does not mean maint and everything between master and
next; specifically, maint will not be used if it is included in
master.
git cherry-pick master~4 master~2
Apply the changes introduced by the fifth and third last commits
pointed to by master and create 2 new commits with these changes.
git cherry-pick -n master~1 next
Apply to the working tree and the index the changes introduced by
the second last commit pointed to by master and by the last commit
pointed to by next, but do not create any commit with these
changes.
git cherry-pick --ff ..next
If history is linear and HEAD is an ancestor of next, update the
working tree and advance the HEAD pointer to match next. Otherwise,
apply the changes introduced by those commits that are in next but
not HEAD to the current branch, creating a new commit for each new
change.
git rev-list --reverse master -- README | git cherry-pick -n --stdin
Apply the changes introduced by all commits on the master branch
that touched README to the working tree and index, so the result
can be inspected and made into a single new commit if suitable.
The following sequence attempts to backport a patch, bails out because
the code the patch applies to has changed too much, and then tries
again, this time exercising more care about matching up context lines.
$ git cherry-pick topic^ (1)
$ git diff (2)
$ git reset --merge ORIG_HEAD (3)
$ git cherry-pick -Xpatience topic^ (4)
1. apply the change that would be shown by git show topic^. In this
example, the patch does not apply cleanly, so information about the
conflict is written to the index and working tree and no new commit
results.
2. summarize changes to be reconciled
3. cancel the cherry-pick. In other words, return to the
pre-cherry-pick state, preserving any local modifications you had in
the working tree.
4. try to apply the change introduced by topic^ again, spending extra
time to avoid mistakes based on incorrectly matching context lines.
SEE ALSO
git-revert(1)
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
Free and Open Source Software