Documentation / git-cherry-pick.txton commit t4012: Break up pipe into serial redirections (4220afd)
   1git-cherry-pick(1)
   2==================
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-cherry-pick - Apply the changes introduced by some existing commits
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   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
  16DESCRIPTION
  17-----------
  18
  19Given one or more existing commits, apply the change each one
  20introduces, recording a new commit for each.  This requires your
  21working tree to be clean (no modifications from the HEAD commit).
  22
  23When it is not obvious how to apply a change, the following
  24happens:
  25
  261. The current branch and `HEAD` pointer stay at the last commit
  27   successfully made.
  282. The `CHERRY_PICK_HEAD` ref is set to point at the commit that
  29   introduced the change that is difficult to apply.
  303. Paths in which the change applied cleanly are updated both
  31   in the index file and in your working tree.
  324. 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 `>>>>>>>`.
  375. No other modifications are made.
  38
  39See linkgit:git-merge[1] for some hints on resolving such
  40conflicts.
  41
  42OPTIONS
  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+
  96This is useful when cherry-picking more than one commits'
  97effect 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--allow-empty::
 109        By default, cherry-picking an empty commit will fail,
 110        indicating that an explicit invocation of `git commit
 111        --allow-empty` is required. This option overrides that
 112        behavior, allowing empty commits to be preserved automatically
 113        in a cherry-pick. Note that when "--ff" is in effect, empty
 114        commits that meet the "fast-forward" requirement will be kept
 115        even without this option.  Note also, that use of this option only
 116        keeps commits that were initially empty (i.e. the commit recorded the
 117        same tree as its parent).  Commits which are made empty due to a
 118        previous commit are dropped.  To force the inclusion of those commits
 119        use `--keep-redundant-commits`.
 120
 121--keep-redundant-commits::
 122        If a commit being cherry picked duplicates a commit already in the
 123        current history, it will become empty.  By default these
 124        redundant commits are ignored.  This option overrides that behavior and
 125        creates an empty commit object.  Implies `--allow-empty`.
 126
 127--strategy=<strategy>::
 128        Use the given merge strategy.  Should only be used once.
 129        See the MERGE STRATEGIES section in linkgit:git-merge[1]
 130        for details.
 131
 132-X<option>::
 133--strategy-option=<option>::
 134        Pass the merge strategy-specific option through to the
 135        merge strategy.  See linkgit:git-merge[1] for details.
 136
 137SEQUENCER SUBCOMMANDS
 138---------------------
 139include::sequencer.txt[]
 140
 141EXAMPLES
 142--------
 143`git cherry-pick master`::
 144
 145        Apply the change introduced by the commit at the tip of the
 146        master branch and create a new commit with this change.
 147
 148`git cherry-pick ..master`::
 149`git cherry-pick ^HEAD master`::
 150
 151        Apply the changes introduced by all commits that are ancestors
 152        of master but not of HEAD to produce new commits.
 153
 154`git cherry-pick maint next ^master`::
 155`git cherry-pick maint master..next`::
 156
 157        Apply the changes introduced by all commits that are
 158        ancestors of maint or next, but not master or any of its
 159        ancestors.  Note that the latter does not mean `maint` and
 160        everything between `master` and `next`; specifically,
 161        `maint` will not be used if it is included in `master`.
 162
 163`git cherry-pick master~4 master~2`::
 164
 165        Apply the changes introduced by the fifth and third last
 166        commits pointed to by master and create 2 new commits with
 167        these changes.
 168
 169`git cherry-pick -n master~1 next`::
 170
 171        Apply to the working tree and the index the changes introduced
 172        by the second last commit pointed to by master and by the last
 173        commit pointed to by next, but do not create any commit with
 174        these changes.
 175
 176`git cherry-pick --ff ..next`::
 177
 178        If history is linear and HEAD is an ancestor of next, update
 179        the working tree and advance the HEAD pointer to match next.
 180        Otherwise, apply the changes introduced by those commits that
 181        are in next but not HEAD to the current branch, creating a new
 182        commit for each new change.
 183
 184`git rev-list --reverse master -- README | git cherry-pick -n --stdin`::
 185
 186        Apply the changes introduced by all commits on the master
 187        branch that touched README to the working tree and index,
 188        so the result can be inspected and made into a single new
 189        commit if suitable.
 190
 191The following sequence attempts to backport a patch, bails out because
 192the code the patch applies to has changed too much, and then tries
 193again, this time exercising more care about matching up context lines.
 194
 195------------
 196$ git cherry-pick topic^             <1>
 197$ git diff                           <2>
 198$ git reset --merge ORIG_HEAD        <3>
 199$ git cherry-pick -Xpatience topic^  <4>
 200------------
 201<1> apply the change that would be shown by `git show topic^`.
 202In this example, the patch does not apply cleanly, so
 203information about the conflict is written to the index and
 204working tree and no new commit results.
 205<2> summarize changes to be reconciled
 206<3> cancel the cherry-pick.  In other words, return to the
 207pre-cherry-pick state, preserving any local modifications you had in
 208the working tree.
 209<4> try to apply the change introduced by `topic^` again,
 210spending extra time to avoid mistakes based on incorrectly matching
 211context lines.
 212
 213SEE ALSO
 214--------
 215linkgit:git-revert[1]
 216
 217GIT
 218---
 219Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite