Documentation/git-cherry-pick.txt

   1 git-cherry-pick(1)
   2 ==================
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-cherry-pick - Apply the changes introduced by some existing commits
   7
   8 SYNOPSIS
   9 --------
  10 [verse]
  11 'git cherry-pick' [--edit] [-n] [-m parent-number] [-s] [-x] [--ff] <commit>...
  12 'git cherry-pick' --continue
  13 'git cherry-pick' --quit
  14 'git cherry-pick' --abort
  15
  16 DESCRIPTION
  17 -----------
  18
  19 Given one or more existing commits, apply the change each one
  20 introduces, recording a new commit for each.  This requires your
  21 working tree to be clean (no modifications from the HEAD commit).
  22
  23 When it is not obvious how to apply a change, the following
  24 happens:
  25
  26 1. The current branch and `HEAD` pointer stay at the last commit
  27    successfully made.
  28 2. The `CHERRY_PICK_HEAD` ref is set to point at the commit that
  29    introduced the change that is difficult to apply.
  30 3. Paths in which the change applied cleanly are updated both
  31    in the index file and in your working tree.
  32 4. For conflicting paths, the index file records up to three
  33    versions, as described in the "TRUE MERGE" section of
  34    linkgit:git-merge[1].  The working tree files will include
  35    a description of the conflict bracketed by the usual
  36    conflict markers `<<<<<<<` and `>>>>>>>`.
  37 5. No other modifications are made.
  38
  39 See linkgit:git-merge[1] for some hints on resolving such
  40 conflicts.
  41
  42 OPTIONS
  43 -------
  44 <commit>...::
  45         Commits to cherry-pick.
  46         For a more complete list of ways to spell commits, see
  47         linkgit:gitrevisions[7].
  48         Sets of commits can be passed but no traversal is done by
  49         default, as if the '--no-walk' option was specified, see
  50         linkgit:git-rev-list[1]. Note that specifying a range will
  51         feed all <commit>... arguments to a single revision walk
  52         (see a later example that uses 'maint master..next').
  53
  54 -e::
  55 --edit::
  56         With this option, 'git cherry-pick' will let you edit the commit
  57         message prior to committing.
  58
  59 -x::
  60         When recording the commit, append a line that says
  61         "(cherry picked from commit ...)" to the original commit
  62         message in order to indicate which commit this change was
  63         cherry-picked from.  This is done only for cherry
  64         picks without conflicts.  Do not use this option if
  65         you are cherry-picking from your private branch because
  66         the information is useless to the recipient.  If on the
  67         other hand you are cherry-picking between two publicly
  68         visible branches (e.g. backporting a fix to a
  69         maintenance branch for an older release from a
  70         development branch), adding this information can be
  71         useful.
  72
  73 -r::
  74         It used to be that the command defaulted to do `-x`
  75         described above, and `-r` was to disable it.  Now the
  76         default is not to do `-x` so this option is a no-op.
  77
  78 -m parent-number::
  79 --mainline parent-number::
  80         Usually you cannot cherry-pick a merge because you do not know which
  81         side of the merge should be considered the mainline.  This
  82         option specifies the parent number (starting from 1) of
  83         the mainline and allows cherry-pick to replay the change
  84         relative to the specified parent.
  85
  86 -n::
  87 --no-commit::
  88         Usually the command automatically creates a sequence of commits.
  89         This flag applies the changes necessary to cherry-pick
  90         each named commit to your working tree and the index,
  91         without making any commit.  In addition, when this
  92         option is used, your index does not have to match the
  93         HEAD commit.  The cherry-pick is done against the
  94         beginning state of your index.
  95 +
  96 This is useful when cherry-picking more than one commits'
  97 effect to your index in a row.
  98
  99 -s::
 100 --signoff::
 101         Add Signed-off-by line at the end of the commit message.
 102
 103 --ff::
 104         If the current HEAD is the same as the parent of the
 105         cherry-pick'ed commit, then a fast forward to this commit will
 106         be performed.
 107
 108 --strategy=<strategy>::
 109         Use the given merge strategy.  Should only be used once.
 110         See the MERGE STRATEGIES section in linkgit:git-merge[1]
 111         for details.
 112
 113 -X<option>::
 114 --strategy-option=<option>::
 115         Pass the merge strategy-specific option through to the
 116         merge strategy.  See linkgit:git-merge[1] for details.
 117
 118 SEQUENCER SUBCOMMANDS
 119 ---------------------
 120 include::sequencer.txt[]
 121
 122 EXAMPLES
 123 --------
 124 `git cherry-pick master`::
 125
 126         Apply the change introduced by the commit at the tip of the
 127         master branch and create a new commit with this change.
 128
 129 `git cherry-pick ..master`::
 130 `git cherry-pick ^HEAD master`::
 131
 132         Apply the changes introduced by all commits that are ancestors
 133         of master but not of HEAD to produce new commits.
 134
 135 `git cherry-pick maint next ^master`::
 136 `git cherry-pick maint master..next`::
 137
 138         Apply the changes introduced by all commits that are
 139         ancestors of maint or next, but not master or any of its
 140         ancestors.  Note that the latter does not mean `maint` and
 141         everything between `master` and `next`; specifically,
 142         `maint` will not be used if it is included in `master`.
 143
 144 `git cherry-pick master{tilde}4 master{tilde}2`::
 145
 146         Apply the changes introduced by the fifth and third last
 147         commits pointed to by master and create 2 new commits with
 148         these changes.
 149
 150 `git cherry-pick -n master~1 next`::
 151
 152         Apply to the working tree and the index the changes introduced
 153         by the second last commit pointed to by master and by the last
 154         commit pointed to by next, but do not create any commit with
 155         these changes.
 156
 157 `git cherry-pick --ff ..next`::
 158
 159         If history is linear and HEAD is an ancestor of next, update
 160         the working tree and advance the HEAD pointer to match next.
 161         Otherwise, apply the changes introduced by those commits that
 162         are in next but not HEAD to the current branch, creating a new
 163         commit for each new change.
 164
 165 `git rev-list --reverse master \-- README | git cherry-pick -n --stdin`::
 166
 167         Apply the changes introduced by all commits on the master
 168         branch that touched README to the working tree and index,
 169         so the result can be inspected and made into a single new
 170         commit if suitable.
 171
 172 The following sequence attempts to backport a patch, bails out because
 173 the code the patch applies to has changed too much, and then tries
 174 again, this time exercising more care about matching up context lines.
 175
 176 ------------
 177 $ git cherry-pick topic^             <1>
 178 $ git diff                           <2>
 179 $ git reset --merge ORIG_HEAD        <3>
 180 $ git cherry-pick -Xpatience topic^  <4>
 181 ------------
 182 <1> apply the change that would be shown by `git show topic^`.
 183 In this example, the patch does not apply cleanly, so
 184 information about the conflict is written to the index and
 185 working tree and no new commit results.
 186 <2> summarize changes to be reconciled
 187 <3> cancel the cherry-pick.  In other words, return to the
 188 pre-cherry-pick state, preserving any local modifications you had in
 189 the working tree.
 190 <4> try to apply the change introduced by `topic^` again,
 191 spending extra time to avoid mistakes based on incorrectly matching
 192 context lines.
 193
 194 SEE ALSO
 195 --------
 196 linkgit:git-revert[1]
 197
 198 GIT
 199 ---
 200 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite