threads / discuss / 42671

How to find commits unique to a branch

Subject: How to find commits unique to a branch

## tl;dr

9 messages between Jun 20, 2016 and Jun 22, 2016.

replies: 8people: 3as markdown or json

Nikolaus Rath· Jun 20, 2016, 20:43 UTC · lore
Hello,

What's the best way to find all commits in a branch A that have not been cherry-picked from (or to) another branch B?

I think I could format-patch all commits in every branch into separate files, hash the Author and Date of each files, and then compare the two lists. But I'm hoping there's a way to instead have git do the heavy-lifting?

Best, -Nikolaus

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Junio C Hamano· Jun 20, 2016, 22:21 UTC · re: Nikolaus Rath · lore

Re: How to find commits unique to a branch

Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus@rath.org> writes:
Show 7 quoted lines
> What's the best way to find all commits in a branch A that have not been
> cherry-picked from (or to) another branch B?
>
> I think I could format-patch all commits in every branch into separate
> files, hash the Author and Date of each files, and then compare the two
> lists. But I'm hoping there's a way to instead have git do the
> heavy-lifting?
"git cherry" perhaps?
Nikolaus Rath· Jun 20, 2016, 23:21 UTC · re: Junio C Hamano · lore

Re: How to find commits unique to a branch

On Jun 20 2016, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
Show 11 quoted lines
> Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus@rath.org> writes:
>
>> What's the best way to find all commits in a branch A that have not been
>> cherry-picked from (or to) another branch B?
>>
>> I think I could format-patch all commits in every branch into separate
>> files, hash the Author and Date of each files, and then compare the two
>> lists. But I'm hoping there's a way to instead have git do the
>> heavy-lifting?
>
> "git cherry" perhaps?

That seems to work only the "wrong way around". I have a tag fuse_3_0_start, which is the common ancestor to "master" and "fuse_2_9_bugfix". I'd like to find all the commits from fuse_3_0_start to master that have not been cherry-picked into fuse_2_9_bugfix.

However:
* "git cherry fuse_3_0_start master release2.9" tells me nothing has
  been cherry-picked at all (only lines with +)
* "git cherry fuse_3_0_start release2.9 master" also tells me nothing
  has been cherry picked, but somehow shows a smaller total number of
  commits.
* "git cherry master release2.9 fuse_3_0_start" gives me the commits
  from fuse_2_9_bugfix that have not been cherry-picked into master
  (which seems to be in contradiction to the two earlier commands).
Am I missing something obvious?

Best, -Nikolaus

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Michael J Gruber· Jun 21, 2016, 08:28 UTC · re: Nikolaus Rath · lore

Re: How to find commits unique to a branch

Nikolaus Rath venit, vidit, dixit 21.06.2016 01:21:
Show 33 quoted lines
> On Jun 20 2016, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>> Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus@rath.org> writes:
>>
>>> What's the best way to find all commits in a branch A that have not been
>>> cherry-picked from (or to) another branch B?
>>>
>>> I think I could format-patch all commits in every branch into separate
>>> files, hash the Author and Date of each files, and then compare the two
>>> lists. But I'm hoping there's a way to instead have git do the
>>> heavy-lifting?
>>
>> "git cherry" perhaps?
> 
> That seems to work only the "wrong way around". I have a tag
> fuse_3_0_start, which is the common ancestor to "master" and
> "fuse_2_9_bugfix". I'd like to find all the commits from fuse_3_0_start
> to master that have not been cherry-picked into fuse_2_9_bugfix.
> 
> However:
> 
> * "git cherry fuse_3_0_start master release2.9" tells me nothing has
>   been cherry-picked at all (only lines with +)
> 
> * "git cherry fuse_3_0_start release2.9 master" also tells me nothing
>   has been cherry picked, but somehow shows a smaller total number of
>   commits.
> 
> * "git cherry master release2.9 fuse_3_0_start" gives me the commits
>   from fuse_2_9_bugfix that have not been cherry-picked into master
>   (which seems to be in contradiction to the two earlier commands).
> 
> 
> Am I missing something obvious?
There is always
git log --left-right --cherry-mark A...B
to give you a good overview of the situation.

"--cherry-pick" instead of "--cherry-mark" will leave out the "="-commits (equivalent ones), and the description of "git log --cherry" in the log man page gives you a good idea of how you can combine "--cherry-pick" with "--left-only" etc. to give you exactly what you want.

For script-usage, you can finally replace "git log" by "git rev-list" with the same rev selecting options.

Michael
Nikolaus Rath· Jun 22, 2016, 16:38 UTC · re: Michael J Gruber · lore

Re: How to find commits unique to a branch

On Jun 21 2016, Michael J Gruber <git@drmicha.warpmail.net> wrote:
Show 40 quoted lines
> Nikolaus Rath venit, vidit, dixit 21.06.2016 01:21:
>> On Jun 20 2016, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>>> Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus@rath.org> writes:
>>>
>>>> What's the best way to find all commits in a branch A that have not been
>>>> cherry-picked from (or to) another branch B?
>>>>
>>>> I think I could format-patch all commits in every branch into separate
>>>> files, hash the Author and Date of each files, and then compare the two
>>>> lists. But I'm hoping there's a way to instead have git do the
>>>> heavy-lifting?
>>>
>>> "git cherry" perhaps?
>> 
>> That seems to work only the "wrong way around". I have a tag
>> fuse_3_0_start, which is the common ancestor to "master" and
>> "fuse_2_9_bugfix". I'd like to find all the commits from fuse_3_0_start
>> to master that have not been cherry-picked into fuse_2_9_bugfix.
>> 
>> However:
>> 
>> * "git cherry fuse_3_0_start master release2.9" tells me nothing has
>>   been cherry-picked at all (only lines with +)
>> 
>> * "git cherry fuse_3_0_start release2.9 master" also tells me nothing
>>   has been cherry picked, but somehow shows a smaller total number of
>>   commits.
>> 
>> * "git cherry master release2.9 fuse_3_0_start" gives me the commits
>>   from fuse_2_9_bugfix that have not been cherry-picked into master
>>   (which seems to be in contradiction to the two earlier commands).
>> 
>> 
>> Am I missing something obvious?
>
> There is always
>
> git log --left-right --cherry-mark A...B
>
> to give you a good overview of the situation.
This worked nicely too, thanks!

Best, -Nikolaus

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Nikolaus Rath· Jun 21, 2016, 18:04 UTC · re: Nikolaus Rath · lore

Re: How to find commits unique to a branch

On Jun 20 2016, Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus@rath.org> wrote:
Show 33 quoted lines
> On Jun 20 2016, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>> Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus@rath.org> writes:
>>
>>> What's the best way to find all commits in a branch A that have not been
>>> cherry-picked from (or to) another branch B?
>>>
>>> I think I could format-patch all commits in every branch into separate
>>> files, hash the Author and Date of each files, and then compare the two
>>> lists. But I'm hoping there's a way to instead have git do the
>>> heavy-lifting?
>>
>> "git cherry" perhaps?
>
> That seems to work only the "wrong way around". I have a tag
> fuse_3_0_start, which is the common ancestor to "master" and
> "fuse_2_9_bugfix". I'd like to find all the commits from fuse_3_0_start
> to master that have not been cherry-picked into fuse_2_9_bugfix.
>
> However:
>
> * "git cherry fuse_3_0_start master release2.9" tells me nothing has
>   been cherry-picked at all (only lines with +)
>
> * "git cherry fuse_3_0_start release2.9 master" also tells me nothing
>   has been cherry picked, but somehow shows a smaller total number of
>   commits.
>
> * "git cherry master release2.9 fuse_3_0_start" gives me the commits
>   from fuse_2_9_bugfix that have not been cherry-picked into master
>   (which seems to be in contradiction to the two earlier commands).
>
>
> Am I missing something obvious?

I meant to add: the repository I'm working with is at https://github.com/libfuse/libfuse/.

Best, -Nikolaus

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Junio C Hamano· Jun 21, 2016, 18:31 UTC · re: Nikolaus Rath · lore

Re: How to find commits unique to a branch

Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus@rath.org> writes:
Show 18 quoted lines
> On Jun 20 2016, Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus@rath.org> wrote:
>> On Jun 20 2016, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>>> Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus@rath.org> writes:
>>>
>>>> What's the best way to find all commits in a branch A that have not been
>>>> cherry-picked from (or to) another branch B?
>>>>
>>>> I think I could format-patch all commits in every branch into separate
>>>> files, hash the Author and Date of each files, and then compare the two
>>>> lists. But I'm hoping there's a way to instead have git do the
>>>> heavy-lifting?
>>>
>>> "git cherry" perhaps?
>>
>> That seems to work only the "wrong way around". I have a tag
>> fuse_3_0_start, which is the common ancestor to "master" and
>> "fuse_2_9_bugfix". I'd like to find all the commits from fuse_3_0_start
>> to master that have not been cherry-picked into fuse_2_9_bugfix.
Hmm, so the topology roughly would look like:
            A'--B'--D' 2fix
           /
          o---A---B---C---D---E---F master
	3start

And you want to find commits in 3start..master that do not have equivalent in 3start..2fix

"git cherry --help" starts like this:
    NAME
           git-cherry - Find commits yet to be applied to upstream
    SYNOPSIS
           git cherry [-v] [<upstream> [<head> [<limit>]]]
    DESCRIPTION
           Determine whether there are commits in <head>..<upstream>
           that are equivalent to those in the range <limit>..<head>.

Applying that to our picture, we want to find commits yet to be applied to 2fix, and do so by comparing the commits between 3start..master and 3start..2fix.

I find that the first sentence of the description is fuzzy ("Determine whether" would imply that you would get "Yes/No" but what we want is "here are the commits that do not have counterpart in 2fix"), but we already know <upstream> corresponds to 2fix (i.e. we are finding ones yet to be applied to there, which can be inferred from the NAME line), so <head> must be 'master' That means that <limit> corresponds to 3start, and we will be comparing commits in two ranges:

    master..2fix (i e. <head>..<upstream>, which is the same thing as 3start..2fix)
    3start..master (i.e. <limit>..<head>)
So perhaps "git cherry -v 2fix master 3start"?
Nikolaus Rath· Jun 22, 2016, 16:38 UTC · re: Junio C Hamano · lore

Re: How to find commits unique to a branch

On Jun 21 2016, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
Show 60 quoted lines
> Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus@rath.org> writes:
>
>> On Jun 20 2016, Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus@rath.org> wrote:
>>> On Jun 20 2016, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>>>> Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus@rath.org> writes:
>>>>
>>>>> What's the best way to find all commits in a branch A that have not been
>>>>> cherry-picked from (or to) another branch B?
>>>>>
>>>>> I think I could format-patch all commits in every branch into separate
>>>>> files, hash the Author and Date of each files, and then compare the two
>>>>> lists. But I'm hoping there's a way to instead have git do the
>>>>> heavy-lifting?
>>>>
>>>> "git cherry" perhaps?
>>>
>>> That seems to work only the "wrong way around". I have a tag
>>> fuse_3_0_start, which is the common ancestor to "master" and
>>> "fuse_2_9_bugfix". I'd like to find all the commits from fuse_3_0_start
>>> to master that have not been cherry-picked into fuse_2_9_bugfix.
>
> Hmm, so the topology roughly would look like:
>
>             A'--B'--D' 2fix
>            /
>           o---A---B---C---D---E---F master
> 	3start
>
> And you want to find commits in 3start..master that do not have
> equivalent in 3start..2fix
>
> "git cherry --help" starts like this:
>
>     NAME
>            git-cherry - Find commits yet to be applied to upstream
>
>     SYNOPSIS
>            git cherry [-v] [<upstream> [<head> [<limit>]]]
>
>     DESCRIPTION
>            Determine whether there are commits in <head>..<upstream>
>            that are equivalent to those in the range <limit>..<head>.
>
> Applying that to our picture, we want to find commits yet to be
> applied to 2fix, and do so by comparing the commits between
> 3start..master and 3start..2fix.
>
> I find that the first sentence of the description is fuzzy
> ("Determine whether" would imply that you would get "Yes/No" but
> what we want is "here are the commits that do not have counterpart
> in 2fix"), but we already know <upstream> corresponds to 2fix
> (i.e. we are finding ones yet to be applied to there, which can be
> inferred from the NAME line), so <head> must be 'master' That means
> that <limit> corresponds to 3start, and we will be comparing commits
> in two ranges:
>
>     master..2fix (i e. <head>..<upstream>, which is the same thing as 3start..2fix)
>     3start..master (i.e. <limit>..<head>)
>
> So perhaps "git cherry -v 2fix master 3start"?

This works, thanks! I don't quite understand why though. I started by saying that I want to know which commits in master are have been cherry picked after 3start was branched to 2fix, so <limit>..<head> must be 3start..2fix, which only leaves "master" as <upstream>. What's wrong with that thought?

Best, -Nikolaus

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Junio C Hamano· Jun 22, 2016, 18:20 UTC · re: Nikolaus Rath · lore

Re: How to find commits unique to a branch

Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus@rath.org> writes:
Show 12 quoted lines
> On Jun 21 2016, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>>
>> I find that the first sentence of the description is fuzzy
>> ("Determine whether" would imply that you would get "Yes/No" but
>> what we want is "here are the commits that do not have counterpart
>> in 2fix"),...
>
> This works, thanks! I don't quite understand why though. I started by
> saying that I want to know which commits in master are have been cherry
> picked after 3start was branched to 2fix, so <limit>..<head> must be
> 3start..2fix, which only leaves "master" as <upstream>.  What's wrong
> with that thought?

The only thing that is wrong in that is it does not match what happens, but that is not the fault of the "thought"; as I said, I think the description is fuzzy and has room for improvement to avoid being read in such a way that leads to a wrong conclusion.

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