How can I tell, from a script, if "git cherry-pick" fails?

Question

If the cherry-pick fails due to a merge conflict, it just returns an exit status of 0.

Please don't tell me about --abort. I need to detect, in a script, if the original cherry-pick command fails.

Using git version 1.8.3.1 on CentOS 7.2.

EDIT: my script was doing the cherry-pick in an if ! and I didn't exit properly in the then clause with a non-zero exit. Sorry for the noise.

I don't know what OS you're on, but on linux with git >=2.0, I find that `cherry-pick` does indeed return a meaningful return code. I have mission-critical code that depends on this fact and it works flawlessly. — Mort, Nov 02 '16 at 15:14
Using git 1.8. I guess I'll have to look into upgrading. Which exact git version are you using? — e40, Nov 02 '16 at 15:20
Frustrating part is I'm on CentOS 7.latest and I really don't want to upgrade git outside of the CentOS repos. — e40, Nov 02 '16 at 15:23

djechlin · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-02T18:00:26.300

4

$? holds the return code of the last process run in bash.

$ ls /dev/null/foo
ls: /dev/null/foo: Not a directory
$ echo $?
1

edited Nov 02 '16 at 18:00

answered Nov 02 '16 at 15:07

djechlin

1

The return value is 0 if there is a merge conflict. – e40 Nov 02 '16 at 15:16
If you edit your answer, I'll upvote it. My answer is locked until you do so. Sorry. – e40 Nov 02 '16 at 16:01

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 02 '16 at 15:11

1

You can call git status or equivalent and inspect its output for a normal "1 ahead of tracking" status or a "merge" status.

answered Nov 02 '16 at 15:11

rubenvb

That's pretty horrible, especially if a series of cherry-picks are being done. However, if no other solution shows up, I guess this is it. – e40 Nov 02 '16 at 15:17
Well, you're using a commandline client to do automated things. Think about using libgit2 instead, I bet it has a better way to do what you want. You can use it from virtually any language. – rubenvb Nov 02 '16 at 15:35

2 Answers2