How to list git tags containing commit that was cherry-picked

Question

I'm trying to find out how I can list all the tags that contains a given commit including those that were cherry-picked.

For example:

• I have a commit abcd1234, which has been merged into the master branch.
• This gives me a merge commit with hash a1b2c3d4
• I create a tag at this point named release-1.0

At this point, I can use git tag --contains abcd1234 OR git tag --contains a1b2c3d4. Both of these commands will list the tag release-1.0

Now:

• I created a hot-fix branch from release-1.0 tag
• I have a new merge commit on the master with the hash xyz789
• I cherry-pick this commit onto the hot-fix branch
• I tag this hot-fix branch as release-1.1 and delete the branch

How can I get a list of all the tags that contains commit xyz789? In this case, it should show that this commit is available in:

• release-1.1

Answer 1

The problem here is that release-1.1 does not contain commit xyz789 (which is also not a valid hash ID, but never mind that :-) ). Cherry-picking creates a new, different commit, with a new, different hash ID.

Rather than attempting to track which commits are copies of which other commits—this is possible; see the -x argument to git cherry-pick—it's better to apply the hot-fix commit as a branch, whether temporary or not, that gets created right after the commit(s) where the problem first occurs. This commit can then be merged to multiple different branches. See What are the perils of cherry picking in git between two branches A and B if I am never going to merge between them? and follow the links to Raymond Chen's blog posts.