What does cherry-pick do?

Question

a1----a2----a3-----a4 (branchA)
      \
       \b1---b2---b3---b4----b5----b6 (branchB)

current I am in branchA(a4) , if I do git cherry-pick b3

what happens? diff of b3 and b2 will be patched to a4?

Answer 1

If there are no conflicts, then the history after cherry-pick b3 will be:

a1----a2----a3-----a4----b3' (branchA)
      \
       \b1---b2---b3---b4----b5----b6 (branchB)

where b3' is the same change as b3 but rebased against branchA .

If you have any conflicts, then the cherry-pick command will tell you so and prompt you to resolve the conflicts manually before committing b3' .

In particular, doing a cherry-pick b3 does not include the changes b1 and b2 .