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NAME
git-cherry-pick - Apply the changes introduced by some existing commits
SYNOPSIS
git cherry-pick [--edit] [-n] [-m parent-number] [-s] [-x] [--ff] <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.
--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
behaviour, 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 are ignored. 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