git apply changes from one commit onto another branch

Question

I want to do something similar to git rebase but without collapsing parallel commits.

Let's say I have the following commits:

  B (bar)
 /
A-C-D (foo)

Now I want to take the changes that D introduced to C in branch foo, and apply them to B in branch bar. so that I end up with the following:

  B-E (bar)
 /
A-C-D (foo)

Where the difference between commits B and E is equal to difference between commits C and D. Is this possible? Is there a way to do it without creating a patch?

I comment the OP for the clarity of this question. – Pablo Adames Mar 13 '23 at 22:44 — Pablo Adames, Mar 13 '23 at 22:44

score 63 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 12 '13 at 16:10

63

Yes:

git checkout -b mergebranch B
git cherry-pick D

answered Jun 12 '13 at 16:10

cforbish

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To ellaborate on the answer above: `git checkout -b mergebranch B` creates a new branch called `mergebranch` using branch `B` as the starting point. `git cherry-pick D` applies the changes introduced by the commit at the tip of the branch `D`. – Patrick Apr 17 '19 at 11:57
6

Cherry-pick without commit command: `git cherry-pick -n ` – Emre Tapcı Jan 13 '22 at 08:52
A small clarification to the meaning of `B` above. It refers to a commit hash, in this case the one at the tip of the branch called `bar`, it is not a branch name as it may come across from reading the comment by @Patrick above. This is still the best answer in my humble opinion. – Pablo Adames Mar 13 '23 at 23:06
@EmreTapcı That's what I was searching for, as a normal cherry-pick threw an error despite no affected paths being modified in my worktree. It worked with `-n` and I didn't need a commit anyway. – Dennis98 Mar 21 '23 at 16:04

score 7 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 12 '20 at 11:23

7

In my case I needed to apply the changes of specific commits of another branch. I did that by cherry picking them like so: git cherry-pick COMMIT-HASH.

edited Mar 12 '20 at 11:23

t0r0X

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answered Apr 17 '19 at 12:33

Patrick

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Note: you need to be in the branch where you want to apply the changes from the commit. – nessa.gp Jul 10 '20 at 08:02

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 05 '14 at 01:25

2

If the last commit on the branch that you want to cherry-pick out of (foo in the example) is a merge commit, you can point at the specific commit to cherry pick by using git cherry-pick branchname~1 to get the commit which was the parent of the merge.

answered Feb 05 '14 at 01:25

aaaarrgh

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git apply changes from one commit onto another branch

3 Answers3