Documentation / git-cherry.txton commit Update draft release notes to Git 2.0 (a35104f)
   1git-cherry(1)
   2=============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-cherry - Find commits yet to be applied to upstream
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10[verse]
  11'git cherry' [-v] [<upstream> [<head> [<limit>]]]
  12
  13DESCRIPTION
  14-----------
  15Determine whether there are commits in `<head>..<upstream>` that are
  16equivalent to those in the range `<limit>..<head>`.
  17
  18The equivalence test is based on the diff, after removing whitespace
  19and line numbers.  git-cherry therefore detects when commits have been
  20"copied" by means of linkgit:git-cherry-pick[1], linkgit:git-am[1] or
  21linkgit:git-rebase[1].
  22
  23Outputs the SHA1 of every commit in `<limit>..<head>`, prefixed with
  24`-` for commits that have an equivalent in <upstream>, and `+` for
  25commits that do not.
  26
  27OPTIONS
  28-------
  29-v::
  30        Show the commit subjects next to the SHA1s.
  31
  32<upstream>::
  33        Upstream branch to search for equivalent commits.
  34        Defaults to the upstream branch of HEAD.
  35
  36<head>::
  37        Working branch; defaults to HEAD.
  38
  39<limit>::
  40        Do not report commits up to (and including) limit.
  41
  42EXAMPLES
  43--------
  44
  45Patch workflows
  46~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  47
  48git-cherry is frequently used in patch-based workflows (see
  49linkgit:gitworkflows[7]) to determine if a series of patches has been
  50applied by the upstream maintainer.  In such a workflow you might
  51create and send a topic branch like this:
  52
  53------------
  54$ git checkout -b topic origin/master
  55# work and create some commits
  56$ git format-patch origin/master
  57$ git send-email ... 00*
  58------------
  59
  60Later, you can see whether your changes have been applied by saying
  61(still on `topic`):
  62
  63------------
  64$ git fetch  # update your notion of origin/master
  65$ git cherry -v
  66------------
  67
  68Concrete example
  69~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  70
  71In a situation where topic consisted of three commits, and the
  72maintainer applied two of them, the situation might look like:
  73
  74------------
  75$ git log --graph --oneline --decorate --boundary origin/master...topic
  76* 7654321 (origin/master) upstream tip commit
  77[... snip some other commits ...]
  78* cccc111 cherry-pick of C
  79* aaaa111 cherry-pick of A
  80[... snip a lot more that has happened ...]
  81| * cccc000 (topic) commit C
  82| * bbbb000 commit B
  83| * aaaa000 commit A
  84|/
  85o 1234567 branch point
  86------------
  87
  88In such cases, git-cherry shows a concise summary of what has yet to
  89be applied:
  90
  91------------
  92$ git cherry origin/master topic
  93- cccc000... commit C
  94+ bbbb000... commit B
  95- aaaa000... commit A
  96------------
  97
  98Here, we see that the commits A and C (marked with `-`) can be
  99dropped from your `topic` branch when you rebase it on top of
 100`origin/master`, while the commit B (marked with `+`) still needs to
 101be kept so that it will be sent to be applied to `origin/master`.
 102
 103
 104Using a limit
 105~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 106
 107The optional <limit> is useful in cases where your topic is based on
 108other work that is not in upstream.  Expanding on the previous
 109example, this might look like:
 110
 111------------
 112$ git log --graph --oneline --decorate --boundary origin/master...topic
 113* 7654321 (origin/master) upstream tip commit
 114[... snip some other commits ...]
 115* cccc111 cherry-pick of C
 116* aaaa111 cherry-pick of A
 117[... snip a lot more that has happened ...]
 118| * cccc000 (topic) commit C
 119| * bbbb000 commit B
 120| * aaaa000 commit A
 121| * 0000fff (base) unpublished stuff F
 122[... snip ...]
 123| * 0000aaa unpublished stuff A
 124|/
 125o 1234567 merge-base between upstream and topic
 126------------
 127
 128By specifying `base` as the limit, you can avoid listing commits
 129between `base` and `topic`:
 130
 131------------
 132$ git cherry origin/master topic base
 133- cccc000... commit C
 134+ bbbb000... commit B
 135- aaaa000... commit A
 136------------
 137
 138
 139SEE ALSO
 140--------
 141linkgit:git-patch-id[1]
 142
 143GIT
 144---
 145Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite