How to list branches that contain a given commit?

Solution 1:

From the git-branch manual page:

 git branch --contains <commit>

Only list branches which contain the specified commit (HEAD if not specified). Implies --list.

 git branch -r --contains <commit>

Lists remote tracking branches as well (as mentioned in user3941992's answer below) that is "local branches that have a direct relationship to a remote branch".

As noted by Carl Walsh, this applies only to the default refspec

fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*

If you need to include other ref namespace (pull request, Gerrit, ...), you need to add that new refspec, and fetch again:

git config --add remote.origin.fetch "+refs/pull/*/head:refs/remotes/origin/pr/*"
git fetch
git branch -r --contains <commit>

See also this git ready article.

The --contains tag will figure out if a certain commit has been brought in yet into your branch. Perhaps you’ve got a commit SHA from a patch you thought you had applied, or you just want to check if commit for your favorite open source project that reduces memory usage by 75% is in yet.

$ git log -1 tests
commit d590f2ac0635ec0053c4a7377bd929943d475297
Author: Nick Quaranto <[email protected]>
Date:   Wed Apr 1 20:38:59 2009 -0400

    Green all around, finally.

$ git branch --contains d590f2
  tests
* master

Note: if the commit is on a remote tracking branch, add the -a option.
(as MichielB comments below)

git branch -a --contains <commit>

MatrixFrog comments that it only shows which branches contain that exact commit.
If you want to know which branches contain an "equivalent" commit (i.e. which branches have cherry-picked that commit) that's git cherry:

Because git cherry compares the changeset rather than the commit id (sha1), you can use git cherry to find out if a commit you made locally has been applied <upstream> under a different commit id.
For example, this will happen if you’re feeding patches <upstream> via email rather than pushing or pulling commits directly.

           __*__*__*__*__> <upstream>
          /
fork-point
          \__+__+__-__+__+__-__+__> <head>

(Here, the commits marked '-' wouldn't show up with git cherry, meaning they are already present in <upstream>.)

Solution 2:

You may run:

git log <SHA1>..HEAD --ancestry-path --merges

From comment of last commit in the output you may find original branch name

Example:

       c---e---g--- feature
      /         \
-a---b---d---f---h---j--- master

git log e..master --ancestry-path --merges

commit h
Merge: g f
Author: Eugen Konkov <>
Date:   Sat Oct 1 00:54:18 2016 +0300

    Merge branch 'feature' into master

How to list branches that contain a given commit?

Solution 1:

Solution 2:

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