The git cherry-pick command in Git allows you to apply the changes made in existing commits to the current branch. It allows you to select specific commits and incorporate their changes without merging the entire branch.
Here’s an elaboration on its usage and functionality:
When you use git cherry-pick, you specify the commit(s) you want to apply to the current branch. Git will then identify the changes made in those commits and apply them as new commits on top of the current branch’s commit history. This means that the changes from the selected commits will be incorporated into your current branch, but the commit history itself remains separate.
Here are a few key points to understand about git cherry-pick:
- Selecting Commits: You can cherry-pick one or multiple commits by specifying their commit hash(es). For example, git cherry-pick will apply the changes from the specified commit to the current branch.
- Applying Changes: Git will apply the changes introduced by the selected commit(s) as new commits on top of the current branch. These new commits will have different commit hashes and will reflect the changes made in the cherry-picked commit(s).
- Resolving Conflicts: If there are conflicts between the changes in the cherry-picked commit(s) and the current branch, Git will pause the cherry-pick process and prompt you to resolve the conflicts manually. You can use Git’s conflict resolution tools to resolve any conflicting changes.
- Target Branch: By default, git cherry-pick applies the changes to the current branch. However, if you want to apply the changes to a different branch, you need to switch to that branch using git checkout before running the cherry-pick command.
It’s important to note that git cherry-pick applies the changes from the selected commit(s) as new commits on top of the current branch. This means that the commit history may appear different from the original branch, as it incorporates changes from different sources.
git cherry-pick Command Examples
1. Apply a commit to the current branch:
# git cherry-pick commit
2. Apply a range of commits to the current branch (see also git rebase –onto):
# git cherry-pick start_commit~..end_commit
3. Apply multiple (non-sequential) commits to the current branch:
# git cherry-pick commit_1 commit_2
4. Add the changes of a commit to the working directory, without creating a commit:
# git cherry-pick -n commit
Summary
Overall, git cherry-pick is a useful command for selectively applying changes from one branch to another. It can be particularly handy when you want to incorporate specific bug fixes or feature enhancements from other branches without merging the entire branch.