Does picking a range of commits with cherry-pick or rebase --onto end up with the same result?

Question

I sometimes want to pick a range of commits from a different repository. I know two ways to do that.

1.

git checkout myBranch
git cherry-pick begin..end

or

2. git rebase --onto myBranch begin end

I find the first version easier to remember. However, I read a lot about how cherry-picking is evil compared to merging because it kinda breaks the history. But what I haven't figured out yet is if there is a difference between cherry-picking a range of commits or rebasing them with --onto

I tend to think that there shouldn't be a difference. Am I mistaken?

Answer 1

These two commands are equivalent, you're just doing the work that a normal rebase would do to figure out the unmerged commits to replay onto the target branch.

Answer 2

Rebasing and cherry-picking are just as 'bad' for merges. They both result in forgetting the IDs of the original commits for the changes you pick up; as a result, later merges may attempt to apply the same changes more than once.