Implementation:Apache Kafka Cherry Pick

Knowledge Sources	Apache Kafka
Domains	Development_Workflow, Version_Control
Last Updated	2026-02-09 12:00 GMT

Overview

Concrete tool for cherry-picking merge commits to release branches provided by the kafka-merge-pr script.

Description

The cherry_pick function takes a merge hash and applies it to a specified release branch. It fetches the remote branch, checks it out, performs git cherry-pick -sx with sign-off, and pushes the result. It prompts the user for the target branch and handles conflicts by pausing for manual resolution.

Usage

Called interactively after the squash merge step. The committer is prompted for each release branch to backport to.

Code Reference

Source Location

Repository: Apache Kafka
File: committer-tools/kafka-merge-pr.py
Lines: L213-245

Signature

def cherry_pick(pr_num, merge_hash, default_branch):
    """
    Cherry-picks the merge commit to a release branch.

    Args:
        pr_num: PR number
        merge_hash: Hash from the squash merge
        default_branch: Suggested target branch

    Returns:
        pick_ref: Reference string for the cherry-pick result
    """

Import

# Internal function in kafka-merge-pr.py
import subprocess

I/O Contract

Inputs

Name	Type	Required	Description
pr_num	str	Yes	PR number for reference
merge_hash	str	Yes	Merge commit hash to cherry-pick
default_branch	str	Yes	Suggested release branch

Outputs

Name	Type	Description
pick_ref	str	Reference string for the cherry-picked commit
Cherry-picked commit	git commit	Created on release branch with sign-off

Usage Examples

# Called after merge_pr returns
pick_ref = cherry_pick(
    pr_num="12345",
    merge_hash="a1b2c3d4",
    default_branch="3.7"
)

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