Mergify Backport Command

The backport command is one of Mergify’s most useful features, especially for projects that maintain multiple branches simultaneously. This command automates the process of creating a new pull request to apply changes from a merged pull request onto another branch. Whether you’re maintaining different versions of a software or need to ensure that bug fixes are propagated to all active branches, backport has got you covered.

With the backport command, managing changes across multiple branches becomes a breeze. Say goodbye to the tedious manual cherry-picking and let Mergify streamline your workflow.

Once the backport is initiated, Mergify will provide feedback directly in the comments. If the backport is successful, you’ll receive a link to the newly created pull request. If there are issues, Mergify will provide a brief description of the problem.

If Mergify encounters merge conflicts during the backport process, it will create a pull request with the conflicts. You’ll need to manually resolve these conflicts within GitHub.

The backport command is especially handy for:

• Version Maintenance: Quickly propagate bug fixes to older, maintained versions of your software.

• Feature Parity: Ensure that features developed on a mainline branch are also available on other active branches.

@Mergifyio backport <target-branch> [<another-target-branch>] […]

• <target-branch>: The name of the branch to which the changes should be backported.

Suppose you have a pull request that was merged into main, but you also want to apply these changes to a branch named v2.0-stable. You would use the command as follows:

@Mergifyio backport v2.0-stable

Upon executing this command, Mergify will attempt to automatically create a new pull request with the changes onto the v2.0-stable branch as soon as the original pull request is merged.