git-pick

git-pick is a command line tool that reproduces a commit from one Git repository in another repository by copying the changed files. It is useful when you need to selectively synchronise changes across repositories that are not directly related, while keeping full control over which paths are mapped or skipped.

Features

• Replays a single commit from a source repository into a destination repository.
• Supports mapping paths from the source repository to different destinations.
• Allows skipping paths that should not be synchronised.
• Fails fast when the destination repository is dirty or when merge commits are provided.

Installation

cargo install --path .

Alternatively, build the binary directly from the repository:

cargo build --release

The resulting executable can be found at target/release/git-pick.

Portable Linux builds

If you see an error such as GLIBC_2.32' not found when running the binary on older Linux distributions, build a statically linked executable using the Musl target:

apt install musl-tools           # provides musl-gcc
rustup target add x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
cargo build --release --target x86_64-unknown-linux-musl

This produces a portable binary at target/x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/release/git-pick that does not depend on the host's glibc version.

You can also use the helper script scripts/build-portable.sh, which installs the Musl target if necessary and runs the same build command.

Official GitHub releases publish this Musl-based binary alongside the glibc build, so you can download a prebuilt portable executable without rebuilding it yourself.

Usage

git-pick --source <PATH> --dest <PATH> --commit <OID> [--map <SRC=DEST> ...] [--skip <PATH> ...]

• --source – path to the repository containing the commit to copy.
• --dest – path to the destination repository where the commit should be applied.
• --commit – the commit hash from the source repository to replay.
• --map – optional path mappings in the form source=destination that rewrite the commit paths.
• --skip – optional paths that should be ignored during synchronisation.
• --author-name / --author-email – optional overrides for the author information of the replayed commit.
• --committer-name / --committer-email – optional overrides for the committer information of the replayed commit.
• --allow-empty – treat already-synchronised commits as warnings instead of errors.

Example

git-pick \
  --source /path/to/source/repo \
  --dest /path/to/destination/repo \
  --commit a1b2c3d4 \
  --map "crates/foo=packages/foo" \
  --skip "crates/foo/tests"

This command reproduces commit a1b2c3d4 from the source repository in the destination repository, mapping files under crates/foo to packages/foo and skipping files under crates/foo/tests.

Development

This repository uses Rust 1.77 or newer (Edition 2024). Before opening a pull request, ensure the following checks pass locally:

cargo fmt --all --check
cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings
cargo test --all --locked

Continuous integration runs the same commands on every push and pull request, so keeping them green locally will help avoid surprises in CI.