git cherry-pick branchless commit on remote

Question

I'm trying to cherry pick a commit from github.

https://github.com/angular/angular.js/commit/469b750019adb193f2b973ab841ac87d0d06d4f2

As far as I can tell, it isn't a part of any active branches. I tried this in my local repo:

git remote add upstream https://github.com/angular/angular.js.git
git fetch upstream
git cherry-pick 469b750

I get this error

fatal: bad revision '469b750'

Is what I'm trying to do possible? I searched for lost, orphaned, and branchless commits, but I didn't find anything that helped. I could just copy/paste this and be done with it, but I'm trying to keep the history and learn more about git. Thank you.

Answer 1

It will not be exactly cherry pick, but you can apply this commit as follows:

1. Add .patch to Github URL and save it as git patch file:

   wget https://github.com/angular/angular.js/commit/469b750019adb193f2b973ab841ac87d0d06d4f2.patch -o new.patch
   

2. Apply this commit to your tree with git am:

   git am new.patch
   

Outcome of this should be identical to cherry-picking.

Answer 2

That's a really interesting problem. I was testing it locally myself and the commit doesn't appear in reflog --all so it is not only orphaned but it's not downloaded from Github on a pull, clone or fetch. It may be a case that it's totally lost forever unless you download it manually and put it back in the tree.

https://help.github.com/articles/commit-exists-on-github-but-not-in-my-local-clone/