git cherry-pick a single commit - Mini Project: Build & Apply

git cherry-pick a single commit

📖 Scenario: You are working on a project with two branches: main and feature. A useful commit was made on the feature branch, and you want to copy that exact commit into the main branch without merging all changes.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to use git cherry-pick to copy a single commit from one branch to another.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a feature branch from main

Make a commit on feature branch with exact message and content

Switch back to main branch

Use git cherry-pick with the commit hash from feature branch

Verify the commit is applied on main branch

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Cherry-picking is useful when you want to copy specific fixes or features from one branch to another without merging all changes. For example, applying a bug fix from a feature branch to the main production branch.

💼 Career

Understanding cherry-pick helps in managing code changes efficiently in team projects and production environments, a common task for developers and DevOps engineers.

1

Create a feature branch and make a commit

Create a new branch called feature from main using git checkout -b feature. Then create a file named feature.txt with the content Feature work. Stage and commit this file with the exact commit message Add feature.txt file.

Git

# Create and switch to feature branch
# Create feature.txt with content 'Feature work'
# Stage and commit with message 'Add feature.txt file'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use git checkout -b feature to create and switch to the new branch. Use echo to create the file, then git add and git commit to save changes.

2

Switch back to main branch

Switch back to the main branch using git checkout main.

Git

git checkout -b feature

echo 'Feature work' > feature.txt

git add feature.txt

git commit -m "Add feature.txt file"

# Switch back to main branch
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use git checkout main to switch branches.

3

Find the commit hash on feature branch

Use git log feature --oneline -1 to find the latest commit hash on the feature branch. Assign this hash to a variable named commit_hash in your shell.

Git

git checkout -b feature

echo 'Feature work' > feature.txt

git add feature.txt

git commit -m "Add feature.txt file"

git checkout main

# Get the latest commit hash from feature branch and assign to commit_hash
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use git log feature --oneline -1 to get the latest commit on feature. Use shell command substitution to assign the hash.

4

Cherry-pick the commit onto main

Use git cherry-pick $commit_hash to apply the commit from feature branch onto main. Then use git log -1 --oneline to print the latest commit message on main branch.

Git

git checkout -b feature

echo 'Feature work' > feature.txt

git add feature.txt

git commit -m "Add feature.txt file"

git checkout main

commit_hash=$(git log feature --oneline -1 | cut -d' ' -f1)

# Cherry-pick the commit and print the latest commit message
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use git cherry-pick $commit_hash to copy the commit. Then git log -1 --oneline shows the latest commit message.