Why cherry-pick is useful in Git - Challenge Your Understanding

Challenge - 5 Problems

🧠 Conceptual

intermediate

Why use git cherry-pick?

Which situation best explains why git cherry-pick is useful?

A To delete a commit from the history permanently

B To merge all changes from one branch into another, including all commits

C To apply a specific commit from one branch onto another without merging the entire branch

D To create a new branch from a specific commit

💡 Hint

Think about applying only one change, not all changes.

git cherry-pick lets you take a single commit from another branch and apply it to your current branch. This is useful when you want just one fix or feature without merging everything.

💻 Command Output

intermediate

Output of git cherry-pick command

What is the output of this command if the cherry-pick is successful?

git cherry-pick 9fceb02

A fatal: bad revision '9fceb02'

B

[master 1a2b3c4] Fix typo in README
 Date: Thu Apr 1 12:00:00 2024 +0000
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

C error: could not apply 9fceb02... Fix typo in README

D Already up to date.

💡 Hint

Successful cherry-pick shows commit info and changes summary.

When cherry-pick applies a commit successfully, it shows the new commit hash, message, date, and file changes.

❓ Troubleshoot

advanced

Resolving conflicts during cherry-pick

You run git cherry-pick abc123 but get a conflict error. What is the best next step?

A Edit the conflicting files to fix conflicts, then run <code>git cherry-pick --continue</code>

B Run <code>git cherry-pick --abort</code> to cancel the cherry-pick and lose changes

C Run <code>git reset --hard</code> to discard all changes and continue cherry-pick

D Run <code>git merge --continue</code> to finish the cherry-pick

💡 Hint

Conflicts need manual fixing before continuing.

When cherry-pick conflicts occur, you must fix the files manually, then use git cherry-pick --continue to finish.

🔀 Workflow

advanced

Cherry-pick in a hotfix workflow

In a hotfix workflow, you fix a bug on the hotfix branch and want to apply the fix to develop without merging all hotfix changes. What command do you use?

A git merge hotfix

B git checkout develop && git pull

C git rebase develop hotfix

D git cherry-pick <commit-hash-of-fix>

💡 Hint

You want only the bug fix commit, not the whole branch.

Cherry-pick lets you apply just the bug fix commit from hotfix to develop without merging all hotfix commits.

✅ Best Practice

expert

Best practice when cherry-picking multiple commits

You need to cherry-pick several commits from one branch to another. What is the best practice?

A Cherry-pick commits in the original order to avoid conflicts and maintain history

B Use <code>git merge</code> instead of cherry-pick for multiple commits

C Squash all commits into one before cherry-picking

D Cherry-pick each commit one by one in any order

💡 Hint

Order matters to keep changes consistent.

Applying commits in the original order helps avoid conflicts and preserves logical history.