Documentation / git-cherry-pick.txton commit Update draft release notes to Git 2.0 (a35104f)
   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[<keyid>]] <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[<keyid>]::
 105--gpg-sign[=<keyid>]::
 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 are ignored.  This option overrides that behavior and
 135        creates an empty commit object.  Implies `--allow-empty`.
 136
 137--strategy=<strategy>::
 138        Use the given merge strategy.  Should only be used once.
 139        See the MERGE STRATEGIES section in linkgit:git-merge[1]
 140        for details.
 141
 142-X<option>::
 143--strategy-option=<option>::
 144        Pass the merge strategy-specific option through to the
 145        merge strategy.  See linkgit:git-merge[1] for details.
 146
 147SEQUENCER SUBCOMMANDS
 148---------------------
 149include::sequencer.txt[]
 150
 151EXAMPLES
 152--------
 153`git cherry-pick master`::
 154
 155        Apply the change introduced by the commit at the tip of the
 156        master branch and create a new commit with this change.
 157
 158`git cherry-pick ..master`::
 159`git cherry-pick ^HEAD master`::
 160
 161        Apply the changes introduced by all commits that are ancestors
 162        of master but not of HEAD to produce new commits.
 163
 164`git cherry-pick maint next ^master`::
 165`git cherry-pick maint master..next`::
 166
 167        Apply the changes introduced by all commits that are
 168        ancestors of maint or next, but not master or any of its
 169        ancestors.  Note that the latter does not mean `maint` and
 170        everything between `master` and `next`; specifically,
 171        `maint` will not be used if it is included in `master`.
 172
 173`git cherry-pick master~4 master~2`::
 174
 175        Apply the changes introduced by the fifth and third last
 176        commits pointed to by master and create 2 new commits with
 177        these changes.
 178
 179`git cherry-pick -n master~1 next`::
 180
 181        Apply to the working tree and the index the changes introduced
 182        by the second last commit pointed to by master and by the last
 183        commit pointed to by next, but do not create any commit with
 184        these changes.
 185
 186`git cherry-pick --ff ..next`::
 187
 188        If history is linear and HEAD is an ancestor of next, update
 189        the working tree and advance the HEAD pointer to match next.
 190        Otherwise, apply the changes introduced by those commits that
 191        are in next but not HEAD to the current branch, creating a new
 192        commit for each new change.
 193
 194`git rev-list --reverse master -- README | git cherry-pick -n --stdin`::
 195
 196        Apply the changes introduced by all commits on the master
 197        branch that touched README to the working tree and index,
 198        so the result can be inspected and made into a single new
 199        commit if suitable.
 200
 201The following sequence attempts to backport a patch, bails out because
 202the code the patch applies to has changed too much, and then tries
 203again, this time exercising more care about matching up context lines.
 204
 205------------
 206$ git cherry-pick topic^             <1>
 207$ git diff                           <2>
 208$ git reset --merge ORIG_HEAD        <3>
 209$ git cherry-pick -Xpatience topic^  <4>
 210------------
 211<1> apply the change that would be shown by `git show topic^`.
 212In this example, the patch does not apply cleanly, so
 213information about the conflict is written to the index and
 214working tree and no new commit results.
 215<2> summarize changes to be reconciled
 216<3> cancel the cherry-pick.  In other words, return to the
 217pre-cherry-pick state, preserving any local modifications you had in
 218the working tree.
 219<4> try to apply the change introduced by `topic^` again,
 220spending extra time to avoid mistakes based on incorrectly matching
 221context lines.
 222
 223SEE ALSO
 224--------
 225linkgit:git-revert[1]
 226
 227GIT
 228---
 229Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite