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