Documentation / git-cherry-pick.txton commit Update draft release notes to 1.9 (864085a)
   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--allow-empty-message::
 122        By default, cherry-picking a commit with an empty message will fail.
 123        This option overrides that behaviour, allowing commits with empty
 124        messages to be cherry picked.
 125
 126--keep-redundant-commits::
 127        If a commit being cherry picked duplicates a commit already in the
 128        current history, it will become empty.  By default these
 129        redundant commits are ignored.  This option overrides that behavior and
 130        creates an empty commit object.  Implies `--allow-empty`.
 131
 132--strategy=<strategy>::
 133        Use the given merge strategy.  Should only be used once.
 134        See the MERGE STRATEGIES section in linkgit:git-merge[1]
 135        for details.
 136
 137-X<option>::
 138--strategy-option=<option>::
 139        Pass the merge strategy-specific option through to the
 140        merge strategy.  See linkgit:git-merge[1] for details.
 141
 142SEQUENCER SUBCOMMANDS
 143---------------------
 144include::sequencer.txt[]
 145
 146EXAMPLES
 147--------
 148`git cherry-pick master`::
 149
 150        Apply the change introduced by the commit at the tip of the
 151        master branch and create a new commit with this change.
 152
 153`git cherry-pick ..master`::
 154`git cherry-pick ^HEAD master`::
 155
 156        Apply the changes introduced by all commits that are ancestors
 157        of master but not of HEAD to produce new commits.
 158
 159`git cherry-pick maint next ^master`::
 160`git cherry-pick maint master..next`::
 161
 162        Apply the changes introduced by all commits that are
 163        ancestors of maint or next, but not master or any of its
 164        ancestors.  Note that the latter does not mean `maint` and
 165        everything between `master` and `next`; specifically,
 166        `maint` will not be used if it is included in `master`.
 167
 168`git cherry-pick master~4 master~2`::
 169
 170        Apply the changes introduced by the fifth and third last
 171        commits pointed to by master and create 2 new commits with
 172        these changes.
 173
 174`git cherry-pick -n master~1 next`::
 175
 176        Apply to the working tree and the index the changes introduced
 177        by the second last commit pointed to by master and by the last
 178        commit pointed to by next, but do not create any commit with
 179        these changes.
 180
 181`git cherry-pick --ff ..next`::
 182
 183        If history is linear and HEAD is an ancestor of next, update
 184        the working tree and advance the HEAD pointer to match next.
 185        Otherwise, apply the changes introduced by those commits that
 186        are in next but not HEAD to the current branch, creating a new
 187        commit for each new change.
 188
 189`git rev-list --reverse master -- README | git cherry-pick -n --stdin`::
 190
 191        Apply the changes introduced by all commits on the master
 192        branch that touched README to the working tree and index,
 193        so the result can be inspected and made into a single new
 194        commit if suitable.
 195
 196The following sequence attempts to backport a patch, bails out because
 197the code the patch applies to has changed too much, and then tries
 198again, this time exercising more care about matching up context lines.
 199
 200------------
 201$ git cherry-pick topic^             <1>
 202$ git diff                           <2>
 203$ git reset --merge ORIG_HEAD        <3>
 204$ git cherry-pick -Xpatience topic^  <4>
 205------------
 206<1> apply the change that would be shown by `git show topic^`.
 207In this example, the patch does not apply cleanly, so
 208information about the conflict is written to the index and
 209working tree and no new commit results.
 210<2> summarize changes to be reconciled
 211<3> cancel the cherry-pick.  In other words, return to the
 212pre-cherry-pick state, preserving any local modifications you had in
 213the working tree.
 214<4> try to apply the change introduced by `topic^` again,
 215spending extra time to avoid mistakes based on incorrectly matching
 216context lines.
 217
 218SEE ALSO
 219--------
 220linkgit:git-revert[1]
 221
 222GIT
 223---
 224Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite