git-cherry(1)

# git-cherry(1) Manual Page

## NAME

git-cherry - Find commits yet to be applied to upstream

## SYNOPSIS

    git cherry [-v] [<upstream> [<head> [<limit>]]]

## DESCRIPTION

Determine whether there are commits in <head>`..`<upstream> that are equivalent to those in the range <limit>`..`<head>.

The equivalence test is based on the diff, after removing whitespace and line numbers. git-cherry therefore detects when commits have been "copied" by means of git-cherry-pick(1), git-am(1) or git-rebase(1).

Outputs the SHA1 of every commit in <limit>`..`<head>, prefixed with `-` for commits that have an equivalent in <upstream>, and `+` for commits that do not.

## OPTIONS

-v

  Show the commit subjects next to the SHA1s.

<upstream>

  Upstream branch to search for equivalent commits. Defaults to the upstream branch of HEAD.

<head>

  Working branch; defaults to HEAD.

<limit>

  Do not report commits up to (and including) limit.

## EXAMPLES

### Patch workflows

git-cherry is frequently used in patch-based workflows (see gitworkflows(7)) to determine if a series of patches has been applied by the upstream maintainer. In such a workflow you might create and send a topic branch like this:

    $ git checkout -b topic origin/master
    # work and create some commits
    $ git format-patch origin/master
    $ git send-email ... 00*

Later, you can see whether your changes have been applied by saying (still on `topic`):

    $ git fetch  # update your notion of origin/master
    $ git cherry -v

### Concrete example

In a situation where topic consisted of three commits, and the maintainer applied two of them, the situation might look like:

    $ git log --graph --oneline --decorate --boundary origin/master...topic
    * 7654321 (origin/master) upstream tip commit
    [... snip some other commits ...]
    * cccc111 cherry-pick of C
    * aaaa111 cherry-pick of A
    [... snip a lot more that has happened ...]
    | * cccc000 (topic) commit C
    | * bbbb000 commit B
    | * aaaa000 commit A
    |/
    o 1234567 branch point

In such cases, git-cherry shows a concise summary of what has yet to be applied:

    $ git cherry origin/master topic
    - cccc000... commit C
    + bbbb000... commit B
    - aaaa000... commit A

Here, we see that the commits A and C (marked with `-`) can be dropped from your `topic` branch when you rebase it on top of `origin/master`, while the commit B (marked with `+`) still needs to be kept so that it will be sent to be applied to `origin/master`.

### Using a limit

The optional <limit> is useful in cases where your topic is based on other work that is not in upstream. Expanding on the previous example, this might look like:

    $ git log --graph --oneline --decorate --boundary origin/master...topic
    * 7654321 (origin/master) upstream tip commit
    [... snip some other commits ...]
    * cccc111 cherry-pick of C
    * aaaa111 cherry-pick of A
    [... snip a lot more that has happened ...]
    | * cccc000 (topic) commit C
    | * bbbb000 commit B
    | * aaaa000 commit A
    | * 0000fff (base) unpublished stuff F
    [... snip ...]
    | * 0000aaa unpublished stuff A
    |/
    o 1234567 merge-base between upstream and topic

By specifying `base` as the limit, you can avoid listing commits between `base` and `topic`:

    $ git cherry origin/master topic base
    - cccc000... commit C
    + bbbb000... commit B
    - aaaa000... commit A

## SEE ALSO

git-patch-id(1)

## GIT

Part of the git(1) suite