"Cherry picking" is a term commonly used in software development and version control systems like Git. It refers to the practice of selecting and applying specific individual changes or commits from one branch to another.
This allows developers to choose specific updates or fixes and apply them to a different branch without merging the entire branch. Cherry picking is often used when you want to bring in specific changes without incorporating all the changes from one branch into another.
Here's how cherry picking typically works:
Identify the commit(s) you want to apply to another branch. This could be a bug fix, a feature, or any specific change.
Checkout the branch where you want to apply the selected commit(s). This is typically the branch you want to update with the cherry-picked changes.
Use the
git cherry-pickcommand followed by the commit hash of the commit you want to pick. For example:git cherry-pick <commit-hash>You can also cherry-pick multiple commits by specifying their commit hashes one after another.
Resolve any conflicts that might occur during the cherry-picking process. If the changes you're trying to apply conflict with changes in the target branch, you'll need to manually resolve these conflicts.
Commit the resolved changes if needed.
Continue cherry-picking other commits as necessary.
Cherry picking can be a useful technique when you want to apply specific changes from one branch to another, especially when you want to keep the branches separate and avoid merging all changes. However, it's important to be cautious when cherry-picking, as it can lead to inconsistencies in the codebase if not done carefully. It's typically used for selective integration of changes and should be used judiciously to maintain code quality and consistency.