git-cherry-pick(1) Git Manual git-cherry-pick(1)
NAME
git-cherry-pick - Apply the changes introduced by some existing commits
SYNOPSIS
git cherry-pick [--edit] [-n] [-m <parent-number>] [-s] [-x] [--ff]
[-S[<keyid>]] <commit>...
git cherry-pick (--continue | --skip | --abort | --quit)
DESCRIPTION
Given one or more existing commits, apply the change each one introduces,
recording a new commit for each. This requires your working tree to be
clean (no modifications from the HEAD commit).
When it is not obvious how to apply a change, the following happens:
1. The current branch and HEAD pointer stay at the last commit
successfully made.
2. The CHERRY_PICK_HEAD ref is set to point at the commit that
introduced the change that is difficult to apply, unless the
--no-commit option was given.
3. Paths in which the change applied cleanly are updated both in the
index file and in your working tree.
4. For conflicting paths, the index file records up to three versions,
as described in the "TRUE MERGE" section of git-merge(1). The working
tree files will include a description of the conflict bracketed by
the usual conflict markers <<<<<<< and >>>>>>>.
5. No other modifications are made.
See git-merge(1) for some hints on resolving such conflicts.
OPTIONS
<commit>...
Commits to cherry-pick. For a more complete list of ways to spell
commits, see gitrevisions(7). Sets of commits can be passed but no
traversal is done by default, as if the --no-walk option was
specified, see git-rev-list(1). Note that specifying a range will
feed all <commit>... arguments to a single revision walk (see a later
example that uses maint master..next).
-e, --edit
With this option, git cherry-pick will let you edit the commit
message prior to committing.
--cleanup=<mode>
This option determines how the commit message will be cleaned up
before being passed on to the commit machinery. See git-commit(1) for
more details. In particular, if the <mode> is given a value of
scissors, scissors will be appended to MERGE_MSG before being passed
on in the case of a conflict.
-x
When recording the commit, append a line that says "(cherry picked
from commit ...)" to the original commit message in order to indicate
which commit this change was cherry-picked from. This is done only
for cherry picks without conflicts. Do not use this option if you are
cherry-picking from your private branch because the information is
useless to the recipient. If on the other hand you are cherry-picking
between two publicly visible branches (e.g. backporting a fix to a
maintenance branch for an older release from a development branch),
adding this information can be useful.
-r
It used to be that the command defaulted to do -x described above,
and -r was to disable it. Now the default is not to do -x so this
option is a no-op.
-m <parent-number>, --mainline <parent-number>
Usually you cannot cherry-pick a merge because you do not know which
side of the merge should be considered the mainline. This option
specifies the parent number (starting from 1) of the mainline and
allows cherry-pick to replay the change relative to the specified
parent.
-n, --no-commit
Usually the command automatically creates a sequence of commits. This
flag applies the changes necessary to cherry-pick each named commit
to your working tree and the index, without making any commit. In
addition, when this option is used, your index does not have to match
the HEAD commit. The cherry-pick is done against the beginning state
of your index.
This is useful when cherry-picking more than one commits' effect to
your index in a row.
This option does not record CHERRY_PICK_HEAD, so a plain git commit
afterwards records you as the author. That is by design: what you are
building is your own work, which you keep changing before committing,
rather than a reproduction of the original commit.
-s, --signoff
Add a Signed-off-by trailer at the end of the commit message. See the
signoff option in git-commit(1) for more information.
-S[<keyid>], --gpg-sign[=<keyid>], --no-gpg-sign
GPG-sign commits. The keyid argument is optional and defaults to the
committer identity; if specified, it must be stuck to the option
without a space. --no-gpg-sign is useful to countermand both
commit.gpgSign configuration variable, and earlier --gpg-sign.
--ff
If the current HEAD is the same as the parent of the cherry-pick'ed
commit, then a fast forward to this commit will be performed.
--allow-empty
By default, cherry-picking an empty commit will fail, indicating that
an explicit invocation of git commit --allow-empty is required. This
option overrides that behavior, allowing empty commits to be
preserved automatically in a cherry-pick. Note that when "--ff" is in
effect, empty commits that meet the "fast-forward" requirement will
be kept even without this option. Note also, that use of this option
only keeps commits that were initially empty (i.e. the commit
recorded the same tree as its parent). Commits which are made empty
due to a previous commit will cause the cherry-pick to fail. To force
the inclusion of those commits, use --empty=keep.
--allow-empty-message
By default, cherry-picking a commit with an empty message will fail.
This option overrides that behavior, allowing commits with empty
messages to be cherry picked.
--empty=(drop|keep|stop)
How to handle commits being cherry-picked that are redundant with
changes already in the current history.
drop
The commit will be dropped.
keep
The commit will be kept. Implies --allow-empty.
stop
The cherry-pick will stop when the commit is applied, allowing
you to examine the commit. This is the default behavior.
Note that --empty=drop and --empty=stop only specify how to handle a
commit that was not initially empty, but rather became empty due to a
previous commit. Commits that were initially empty will still cause
the cherry-pick to fail unless one of --empty=keep or --allow-empty
are specified.
--keep-redundant-commits
Deprecated synonym for --empty=keep.
--strategy=<strategy>
Use the given merge strategy. Should only be used once. See the MERGE
STRATEGIES section in git-merge(1) for details.
-X<option>, --strategy-option=<option>
Pass the merge strategy-specific option through to the merge
strategy. See git-merge(1) for details.
--rerere-autoupdate, --no-rerere-autoupdate
After the rerere mechanism reuses a recorded resolution on the
current conflict to update the files in the working tree, allow it to
also update the index with the result of resolution.
--no-rerere-autoupdate is a good way to double-check what git-
rerere(1) did and catch potential mismerges, before committing the
result to the index with a separate git-add(1).
SEQUENCER SUBCOMMANDS
--continue
Continue the operation in progress using the information in
.git/sequencer. Can be used to continue after resolving conflicts in
a failed cherry-pick or revert.
--skip
Skip the current commit and continue with the rest of the sequence.
--quit
Forget about the current operation in progress. Can be used to clear
the sequencer state after a failed cherry-pick or revert.
--abort
Cancel the operation and return to the pre-sequence state.
EXAMPLES
git cherry-pick master
Apply the change introduced by the commit at the tip of the master
branch and create a new commit with this change.
git cherry-pick ..master, git cherry-pick ^HEAD master
Apply the changes introduced by all commits that are ancestors of
master but not of HEAD to produce new commits.
git cherry-pick maint next ^master, git cherry-pick maint master..next
Apply the changes introduced by all commits that are ancestors of
maint or next, but not master or any of its ancestors. Note that the
latter does not mean maint and everything between master and next;
specifically, maint will not be used if it is included in master.
git cherry-pick master~4 master~2
Apply the changes introduced by the fifth and third last commits
pointed to by master and create 2 new commits with these changes.
git cherry-pick -n master~1 next
Apply to the working tree and the index the changes introduced by the
second last commit pointed to by master and by the last commit
pointed to by next, but do not create any commit with these changes.
git cherry-pick --ff ..next
If history is linear and HEAD is an ancestor of next, update the
working tree and advance the HEAD pointer to match next. Otherwise,
apply the changes introduced by those commits that are in next but
not HEAD to the current branch, creating a new commit for each new
change.
git rev-list --reverse master -- README | git cherry-pick -n --stdin
Apply the changes introduced by all commits on the master branch that
touched README to the working tree and index, so the result can be
inspected and made into a single new commit if suitable.
The following sequence attempts to backport a patch, bails out because
the code the patch applies to has changed too much, and then tries again,
this time exercising more care about matching up context lines.
$ git cherry-pick topic^ (1)
$ git diff (2)
$ git cherry-pick --abort (3)
$ git cherry-pick -Xpatience topic^ (4)
1. apply the change that would be shown by git show topic^.
In this example, the patch does not apply cleanly, so
information about the conflict is written to the index and
working tree and no new commit results.
2. summarize changes to be reconciled
3. cancel the cherry-pick. In other words, return to the
pre-cherry-pick state, preserving any local modifications
you had in the working tree.
4. try to apply the change introduced by topic^ again,
spending extra time to avoid mistakes based on incorrectly
matching context lines.
SEE ALSO
git-revert(1)
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
Git 2.56.0 2026-09-27 git-cherry-pick(1)
git 2.56.0 - Generated Thu Oct 1 11:10:22 CDT 2026