Documentation / git-cherry-pick.txton commit Merge branch 'sb/check-return-from-read-ref' into maint (7a23807)
   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]
  12                  [-S[<key-id>]] <commit>...
  13'git cherry-pick' --continue
  14'git cherry-pick' --quit
  15'git cherry-pick' --abort
  16
  17DESCRIPTION
  18-----------
  19
  20Given one or more existing commits, apply the change each one
  21introduces, recording a new commit for each.  This requires your
  22working tree to be clean (no modifications from the HEAD commit).
  23
  24When it is not obvious how to apply a change, the following
  25happens:
  26
  271. The current branch and `HEAD` pointer stay at the last commit
  28   successfully made.
  292. The `CHERRY_PICK_HEAD` ref is set to point at the commit that
  30   introduced the change that is difficult to apply.
  313. Paths in which the change applied cleanly are updated both
  32   in the index file and in your working tree.
  334. For conflicting paths, the index file records up to three
  34   versions, as described in the "TRUE MERGE" section of
  35   linkgit:git-merge[1].  The working tree files will include
  36   a description of the conflict bracketed by the usual
  37   conflict markers `<<<<<<<` and `>>>>>>>`.
  385. No other modifications are made.
  39
  40See linkgit:git-merge[1] for some hints on resolving such
  41conflicts.
  42
  43OPTIONS
  44-------
  45<commit>...::
  46        Commits to cherry-pick.
  47        For a more complete list of ways to spell commits, see
  48        linkgit:gitrevisions[7].
  49        Sets of commits can be passed but no traversal is done by
  50        default, as if the '--no-walk' option was specified, see
  51        linkgit:git-rev-list[1]. Note that specifying a range will
  52        feed all <commit>... arguments to a single revision walk
  53        (see a later example that uses 'maint master..next').
  54
  55-e::
  56--edit::
  57        With this option, 'git cherry-pick' will let you edit the commit
  58        message prior to committing.
  59
  60-x::
  61        When recording the commit, append a line that says
  62        "(cherry picked from commit ...)" to the original commit
  63        message in order to indicate which commit this change was
  64        cherry-picked from.  This is done only for cherry
  65        picks without conflicts.  Do not use this option if
  66        you are cherry-picking from your private branch because
  67        the information is useless to the recipient.  If on the
  68        other hand you are cherry-picking between two publicly
  69        visible branches (e.g. backporting a fix to a
  70        maintenance branch for an older release from a
  71        development branch), adding this information can be
  72        useful.
  73
  74-r::
  75        It used to be that the command defaulted to do `-x`
  76        described above, and `-r` was to disable it.  Now the
  77        default is not to do `-x` so this option is a no-op.
  78
  79-m parent-number::
  80--mainline parent-number::
  81        Usually you cannot cherry-pick a merge because you do not know which
  82        side of the merge should be considered the mainline.  This
  83        option specifies the parent number (starting from 1) of
  84        the mainline and allows cherry-pick to replay the change
  85        relative to the specified parent.
  86
  87-n::
  88--no-commit::
  89        Usually the command automatically creates a sequence of commits.
  90        This flag applies the changes necessary to cherry-pick
  91        each named commit to your working tree and the index,
  92        without making any commit.  In addition, when this
  93        option is used, your index does not have to match the
  94        HEAD commit.  The cherry-pick is done against the
  95        beginning state of your index.
  96+
  97This is useful when cherry-picking more than one commits'
  98effect to your index in a row.
  99
 100-s::
 101--signoff::
 102        Add Signed-off-by line at the end of the commit message.
 103
 104-S[<key-id>]::
 105--gpg-sign[=<key-id>]::
 106        GPG-sign commits.
 107
 108--ff::
 109        If the current HEAD is the same as the parent of the
 110        cherry-pick'ed commit, then a fast forward to this commit will
 111        be performed.
 112
 113--allow-empty::
 114        By default, cherry-picking an empty commit will fail,
 115        indicating that an explicit invocation of `git commit
 116        --allow-empty` is required. This option overrides that
 117        behavior, allowing empty commits to be preserved automatically
 118        in a cherry-pick. Note that when "--ff" is in effect, empty
 119        commits that meet the "fast-forward" requirement will be kept
 120        even without this option.  Note also, that use of this option only
 121        keeps commits that were initially empty (i.e. the commit recorded the
 122        same tree as its parent).  Commits which are made empty due to a
 123        previous commit are dropped.  To force the inclusion of those commits
 124        use `--keep-redundant-commits`.
 125
 126--allow-empty-message::
 127        By default, cherry-picking a commit with an empty message will fail.
 128        This option overrides that behaviour, allowing commits with empty
 129        messages to be cherry picked.
 130
 131--keep-redundant-commits::
 132        If a commit being cherry picked duplicates a commit already in the
 133        current history, it will become empty.  By default these
 134        redundant commits cause `cherry-pick` to stop so the user can
 135        examine the commit. This option overrides that behavior and
 136        creates an empty commit object.  Implies `--allow-empty`.
 137
 138--strategy=<strategy>::
 139        Use the given merge strategy.  Should only be used once.
 140        See the MERGE STRATEGIES section in linkgit:git-merge[1]
 141        for details.
 142
 143-X<option>::
 144--strategy-option=<option>::
 145        Pass the merge strategy-specific option through to the
 146        merge strategy.  See linkgit:git-merge[1] for details.
 147
 148SEQUENCER SUBCOMMANDS
 149---------------------
 150include::sequencer.txt[]
 151
 152EXAMPLES
 153--------
 154`git cherry-pick master`::
 155
 156        Apply the change introduced by the commit at the tip of the
 157        master branch and create a new commit with this change.
 158
 159`git cherry-pick ..master`::
 160`git cherry-pick ^HEAD master`::
 161
 162        Apply the changes introduced by all commits that are ancestors
 163        of master but not of HEAD to produce new commits.
 164
 165`git cherry-pick maint next ^master`::
 166`git cherry-pick maint master..next`::
 167
 168        Apply the changes introduced by all commits that are
 169        ancestors of maint or next, but not master or any of its
 170        ancestors.  Note that the latter does not mean `maint` and
 171        everything between `master` and `next`; specifically,
 172        `maint` will not be used if it is included in `master`.
 173
 174`git cherry-pick master~4 master~2`::
 175
 176        Apply the changes introduced by the fifth and third last
 177        commits pointed to by master and create 2 new commits with
 178        these changes.
 179
 180`git cherry-pick -n master~1 next`::
 181
 182        Apply to the working tree and the index the changes introduced
 183        by the second last commit pointed to by master and by the last
 184        commit pointed to by next, but do not create any commit with
 185        these changes.
 186
 187`git cherry-pick --ff ..next`::
 188
 189        If history is linear and HEAD is an ancestor of next, update
 190        the working tree and advance the HEAD pointer to match next.
 191        Otherwise, apply the changes introduced by those commits that
 192        are in next but not HEAD to the current branch, creating a new
 193        commit for each new change.
 194
 195`git rev-list --reverse master -- README | git cherry-pick -n --stdin`::
 196
 197        Apply the changes introduced by all commits on the master
 198        branch that touched README to the working tree and index,
 199        so the result can be inspected and made into a single new
 200        commit if suitable.
 201
 202The following sequence attempts to backport a patch, bails out because
 203the code the patch applies to has changed too much, and then tries
 204again, this time exercising more care about matching up context lines.
 205
 206------------
 207$ git cherry-pick topic^             <1>
 208$ git diff                           <2>
 209$ git reset --merge ORIG_HEAD        <3>
 210$ git cherry-pick -Xpatience topic^  <4>
 211------------
 212<1> apply the change that would be shown by `git show topic^`.
 213In this example, the patch does not apply cleanly, so
 214information about the conflict is written to the index and
 215working tree and no new commit results.
 216<2> summarize changes to be reconciled
 217<3> cancel the cherry-pick.  In other words, return to the
 218pre-cherry-pick state, preserving any local modifications you had in
 219the working tree.
 220<4> try to apply the change introduced by `topic^` again,
 221spending extra time to avoid mistakes based on incorrectly matching
 222context lines.
 223
 224SEE ALSO
 225--------
 226linkgit:git-revert[1]
 227
 228GIT
 229---
 230Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite