• Cherry-pick example
• Cherry-pick all changes from a merge request
• Cherry-pick a single commit
  • From a project’s commit list
  • From a merge request
  • From the file view of a repository
• Cherry-pick into a project
• View system notes for cherry-picked commits
• Related topics
• Troubleshooting
  • Selecting a different parent commit when cherry-picking

Cherry-pick changes

In Git, cherry-picking is taking a single commit from one branch and adding it as the latest commit on another branch. The rest of the commits in the source branch are not added to the target. You should cherry-pick a commit when you need the change contained in a single commit, but you can’t or don’t want to pull the entire contents of that branch into another.

You can use the GitLab UI to cherry-pick single commits or entire merge requests. You can even cherry-pick a commit from a fork of your project.

Cherry-pick example

In this example of cherry-picking, a Git repository has two branches: develop and main. This example shows a cherry-picked commit from one branch being added to another:

In this example, a cherry-pick of commit B from the develop branch is added after commit E in the main branch.

Commit G is added after the cherry-pick.

Cherry-pick all changes from a merge request

After a merge request is merged, you can cherry-pick all changes introduced by the merge request:

1. On the top bar, select Main menu > Projects and find your project.
2. On the left sidebar, select Merge requests, and find your merge request.
3. Scroll to the merge request reports section, and find the Merged by report.

4. In the upper-right corner, select Cherry-pick:

   

5. In the modal window, select the project and branch to cherry-pick into.
6. Optional. Select Start a new merge request with these changes.
7. Select Cherry-pick.

Cherry-pick a single commit

You can cherry-pick a single commit from multiple locations in your GitLab project.

From a project’s commit list

To cherry-pick a commit from the list of all commits for a project:

1. On the top bar, select Main menu > Projects and find your project.
2. On the left sidebar, select Repository > Commits.
3. Select the title of the commit you want to cherry-pick.
4. In the upper-right corner, select Options > Cherry-pick to show the cherry-pick modal.
5. In the modal window, select the project and branch to cherry-pick into.
6. Optional. Select Start a new merge request with these changes.
7. Select Cherry-pick.

From a merge request

You can cherry-pick commits from any merge request in your project, regardless of whether the merge request is open or closed. To cherry-pick a commit from the list of commits included in a merge request:

1. On the top bar, select Main menu > Projects and find your project.
2. On the left sidebar, select Merge requests, and find your merge request.
3. In the merge request’s secondary menu, select Commits to display the commit details page.
4. Select the title of the commit you want to cherry-pick.
5. In the upper-right corner, select Options > Cherry-pick to show the cherry-pick modal.
6. In the modal window, select the project and branch to cherry-pick into.
7. Optional. Select Start a new merge request with these changes.
8. Select Cherry-pick.

From the file view of a repository

You can cherry-pick from the list of previous commits affecting an individual file when you view that file in your project’s Git repository:

1. On the top bar, select Main menu > Projects and find your project.
2. On the left sidebar, select Repository > Files and go to the file changed by the commit.
3. Select History, then select the title of the commit you want to cherry-pick.
4. In the upper-right corner, select Options > Cherry-pick to show the cherry-pick modal.
5. In the modal window, select the project and branch to cherry-pick into.
6. Optional. Select Start a new merge request with these changes.
7. Select Cherry-pick.

Cherry-pick into a project

You can cherry-pick merge requests from the same project, or forks of the same project, from the GitLab user interface:

1. In the merge request’s secondary menu, select Commits to display the commit details page.
2. In the upper-right corner, select Options > Cherry-pick to show the cherry-pick modal.
3. In Pick into project and Pick into branch, select the destination project and branch:
4. Optional. Select Start a new merge request if you’re ready to create a merge request.
5. Select Cherry-pick.

View system notes for cherry-picked commits

When you cherry-pick a merge commit in the GitLab UI or API, GitLab adds a system note to the related merge request thread in the format [USER] picked the changes into the branch [BRANCHNAME] with commit** [SHA] [DATE]:

The system note crosslinks the new commit and the existing merge request. Each deployment’s list of associated merge requests includes cherry-picked merge commits.

Related topics

• Use the Commits API to add custom messages to changes when you use the API to cherry-pick.

Troubleshooting

Selecting a different parent commit when cherry-picking

When you cherry-pick a merge commit in the GitLab UI, the mainline is always the first parent. Use the command line to cherry-pick with a different mainline.

Here’s a quick example to cherry-pick a merge commit using the second parent as the mainline:

git cherry-pick -m 2 7a39eb0