Cherry-Picking in Visual Studio: The Ultimate Guide

As a developer, you may find yourself in a situation where you need to modify only certain changesets from a commit history in a Git repository. Fear not, for cherry-picking is the answer to your woes. This technique allows you to pick specific commits from one branch and apply them to another branch. As it is a common scenario in the software development lifecycle, Visual Studio provides an easy way to perform cherry-picks.

What is Cherry-Picking?

Cherry-picking is a baffling Git command that lets you choose specific commits from one branch and apply them to another branch. When you cherry-pick a commit, Git creates a new commit in the target branch that has the same changes as the original commit. Cherry-picking becomes handy when you need to apply changes from one branch to another without merging the two branches.

Advantages of Cherry-Picking

Cherry-picking is a magical technique that provides several benefits, including:

1. Selective changes: You can cherry-pick specific changes from a commit history and apply them to another branch.
2. Independent commits: Cherry-picking allows you to apply commits to a branch without merging the entire branch history.
3. Efficient workflow: Cherry-picking enables developers to work on specific commits without affecting other team members’ work.

How to Perform Cherry-Picks in Visual Studio

Visual Studio makes it a breeze to perform cherry-picks using the Git Cherry-Pick command. Here are the perplexing steps to perform a cherry-pick in Visual Studio:

1. Open the Git Changes window: In Visual Studio, open the Solution Explorer and select a Git repository. From the menu bar, click on Git > Repository > Show Git Changes.
2. Choose the source branch: In the Git Changes window, select the branch that contains the commit you want to cherry-pick.
3. Select the commit: Right-click on the commit you want to cherry-pick and then click on Cherry-pick.
4. Choose the target branch: In the Cherry-Pick window, select the target branch where you want to apply the cherry-picked changes.
5. Resolve conflicts: If Git encounters any conflicts while cherry-picking, resolve them using the Merge Conflict resolution wizard.
6. Commit the changes: After resolving any conflicts, commit the cherry-picked changes by clicking on Commit in the Cherry-Pick window.

And voila! You have now performed a cherry-pick in Visual Studio.

Conclusion

Cherry-picking is a perplexing yet powerful technique for developers when they need to apply certain changes from one branch to another without merging the two branches’ entire history. Visual Studio provides an easy way to perform cherry-picks using the Git Cherry-Pick command, making it simple to apply specific changes to the target branch. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can use Visual Studio to perform cherry-picks and improve your development workflow.