Amending A File in Last Commit

You’re working on target-branch. You create a new branch from it:

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git checkout -b source-branch

You make a first commit specific to source-branch, then a second commit with changes that should also live on target-branch.

You need to bring only that last commit back to target-branch. How do you perform this task?

The Solution

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git checkout target-branch
git cherry-pick source-branch

When you pass a branch name without a range, git cherry-pick picks only the latest commit of that branch.

Cherry-Picking Multiple Commits

If you need the last two commits instead:

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git cherry-pick source-branch~2..source-branch

The range source-branch~2..source-branch means “all commits after the second-to-last up to and including the tip.”

Handling Empty Cherry-Picks

You may encounter this message:

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The previous cherry-pick is now empty, possibly due to conflict resolution.

It means the changes from that commit already exist on target-branch. The commit produces no diff.

You have two options:

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git cherry-pick --skip      # skip it and move on
git cherry-pick --abort     # cancel the whole operation

This typically happens when a previous merge or cherry-pick already brought the changes in, or when conflict resolution accepted the target branch’s version entirely.

Credit: Git Logo by Jason Long is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.