fix(rules): ignore cherry-picks in signed-off-by by mzedel · Pull Request #4625 · conventional-changelog/commitlint

mzedel · 2026-02-18T11:19:46Z

Description

Before this change, the rule signed-off-by was rejecting cherry picked commits, as the cherry pick message wasn't appearing as the last line. With this in place, the rule will treat cherry picked commits just the same as regular commits.

Motivation and Context

Addresses #2704 to remove the need for the trailer-exists workaround.

Usage examples

cherry-pick any commit with cherry-pick -x commit-id
run commitlint

or with the current change:

yarn build

printf 'fix: 🍒\n\nSigned-off-by: Manuel Zedel <[email protected]>\n\ncherry picked from commit 123' | commitlint --config @commitlint/cli/fixtures/signoff/commitlint.config.js

How Has This Been Tested?

I added a unit-test, watched it fail and then fixed the implementation to make the test pass.

Types of changes

Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to change)

Checklist:

My change requires a change to the documentation.
I have updated the documentation accordingly.
I have added tests to cover my changes.
All new and existing tests passed.

qodo-code-review · 2026-02-18T11:19:58Z

Review Summary by Qodo

Fix signed-off-by rule to ignore cherry-pick trailers

🐞 Bug fix

Walkthroughs

Description

• Fixes signed-off-by rule rejecting cherry-picked commits
• Filters out cherry-pick trailer lines during validation
• Adds test case for cherry-pick scenario

Diagram

flowchart LR
  A["Cherry-picked commit"] -->|"contains cherry-pick trailer"| B["signed-off-by rule"]
  B -->|"filters cherry-pick lines"| C["validates Signed-off-by presence"]
  C -->|"passes validation"| D["commit accepted"]

File Changes

1. @commitlint/rules/src/signed-off-by.ts 🐞 Bug fix +2/-0

Filter cherry-pick trailer lines in validation

• Added filter to skip lines starting with cherry picked from commit
• Preserves existing comment filtering logic
• Allows commits with both Signed-off-by and cherry-pick trailers to pass validation

@commitlint/rules/src/signed-off-by.ts

2. @commitlint/rules/src/signed-off-by.test.ts 🧪 Tests +20/-0

Add cherry-pick scenario test coverage

• Added new test message withSignoffAndCherryPick with both trailers
• Added parsed variant for the new test message
• Added test case verifying cherry-pick commits pass with always mode

@commitlint/rules/src/signed-off-by.test.ts

codesandbox-ci · 2026-02-18T11:20:24Z

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qodo-code-review · 2026-02-18T11:22:59Z

Code Review by Qodo

🐞 Bugs (1) 📘 Rule violations (0) 📎 Requirement gaps (1)

1. Cherry-pick pattern missing parenthesis 📎 Requirement gap ⛯ Reliability

Description

Git's cherry-pick -x appends (cherry picked from commit <hash>) with a leading (, but the
filter uses ln.startsWith("cherry picked from commit") (no parenthesis), so real cherry-picked
commits produced by git will not be filtered and commitlint will still fail on them. The test
fixture also omits the parenthesis, so it does not exercise the real git output.

Code

@commitlint/rules/src/signed-off-by.ts[R14-15]
+			// skip cherry pick commits
+			!ln.startsWith("cherry picked from commit") &&

Evidence

Compliance rule 7 requires that commitlint correctly handles the `(cherry picked from commit
<hash>) line appended by git cherry-pick -x. Git's actual output includes a leading (`, but the
added filter !ln.startsWith("cherry picked from commit") omits it, meaning the pattern never
matches real git cherry-pick output. The test fixture at line 27 also uses `cherry picked from
commit 123` (no parenthesis), so the test passes but does not validate the real scenario.

Commitlint Passes on Cherry-Picked Commits
@commitlint/rules/src/signed-off-by.ts[14-15]
@commitlint/rules/src/signed-off-by.test.ts[27-27]

Agent prompt

The issue below was found during a code review. Follow the provided context and guidance below and implement a solution

## Issue description
The filter added to skip cherry-pick lines uses `ln.startsWith(&quot;cherry picked from commit&quot;)`, but `git cherry-pick -x` actually appends `(cherry picked from commit &lt;hash&gt;)` — with a leading parenthesis `(`. The current pattern will never match real git output, leaving the original bug unfixed.

## Issue Context
Git&#x27;s `-x` flag appends a line of the form `(cherry picked from commit &lt;hash&gt;)` to the commit message body. The test fixture at line 27 also lacks the parenthesis (`cherry picked from commit 123`), so the test passes but does not exercise the real git format, giving a false sense of correctness.

## Fix Focus Areas
- @commitlint/rules/src/signed-off-by.ts[15-15] — change `&quot;cherry picked from commit&quot;` to `&quot;(cherry picked from commit&quot;`
- @commitlint/rules/src/signed-off-by.test.ts[27-27] — update test message from `cherry picked from commit 123` to `(cherry picked from commit 123)`

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2. Test fixture uses wrong cherry-pick format 🐞 Bug ✓ Correctness

Description

The new test fixture withSignoffAndCherryPick uses cherry picked from commit 123 (no
parentheses), which is a format that git cherry-pick -x never produces. Because both the fixture
and the implementation share the same incorrect format, the test passes while the real-world
scenario remains completely untested and broken.

Code

@commitlint/rules/src/signed-off-by.test.ts[R21-28]

+	withSignoffAndCherryPick: `test: subject
+
+message body
+
+Signed-off-by:
+
+cherry picked from commit 123
`,

Evidence

The fixture at lines 21-28 omits the parentheses that git always adds. The PR description's own
usage example also uses the wrong format (cherry picked from commit 123). Because the
implementation filter was written to match this same wrong format, the test passes — but it
validates a message that real git never generates. A grep for \(cherry picked across the entire
repo returns zero results, confirming the actual git format is never exercised.

@commitlint/rules/src/signed-off-by.test.ts[21-28]
@commitlint/rules/src/signed-off-by.test.ts[123-131]

Agent prompt

The issue below was found during a code review. Follow the provided context and guidance below and implement a solution

## Issue description
The test fixture `withSignoffAndCherryPick` uses `cherry picked from commit 123` without parentheses. The actual output of `git cherry-pick -x` is `(cherry picked from commit &lt;sha&gt;)`. The fixture must be updated to reflect the real format so the test provides meaningful coverage.

## Issue Context
The implementation filter and the fixture were both written with the wrong format, so they agree with each other but both disagree with reality. Fixing only the fixture (without fixing the implementation) will cause the test to fail, which is the correct signal that the implementation also needs to be fixed.

## Fix Focus Areas
- @commitlint/rules/src/signed-off-by.test.ts[21-28]

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Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR fixes a bug in the signed-off-by rule where cherry-picked commits were incorrectly rejected. The rule now treats cherry-picked commits the same as regular commits by filtering out the cherry-pick trailer line when checking if the last line is a "Signed-off-by" trailer.

Changes:

Modified the signed-off-by rule to skip lines starting with "(cherry picked from commit" when determining the last meaningful line
Added test coverage to verify that cherry-pick markers are properly ignored

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

File	Description
@commitlint/rules/src/signed-off-by.ts	Added filter to skip cherry-pick trailer lines
@commitlint/rules/src/signed-off-by.test.ts	Added test case and test data for cherry-pick scenario

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escapedcat · 2026-02-18T12:17:45Z

Thanks! Please have a look at the open comments

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

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escapedcat · 2026-02-18T16:13:49Z

Some more comments. Have a look and tackle what's valid please, thanks!

Before this change, the rule `signed-off-by` was rejecting cherry picked commits. The cherry pick message wasn't appearing as the last line. With this in place, the rule will treat cherry picked commits as regular commits. Signed-off-by: Manuel Zedel <[email protected]>

mzedel · 2026-02-18T19:19:43Z

@escapedcat thanks for looking into this!
So far we haven't gotten to automated reviews, so I appreciate the experience as an added benefit 😃!

escapedcat · 2026-02-19T09:44:35Z

So far we haven't gotten to automated reviews, so I appreciate the experience as an added benefit 😃!

You're welcome! copilot reviews are really helpful.

mzedel mentioned this pull request Feb 18, 2026

chore: Update commitlint settings mendersoftware/mendertesting#441

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Comment thread @commitlint/rules/src/signed-off-by.test.ts

mzedel force-pushed the fix/signed-off-by-cherries branch from 17e82a7 to 2bc5354 Compare February 18, 2026 11:36

escapedcat requested a review from Copilot February 18, 2026 11:41

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mzedel force-pushed the fix/signed-off-by-cherries branch from 2bc5354 to e8be3cc Compare February 18, 2026 13:29

escapedcat requested a review from Copilot February 18, 2026 16:04

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Comment thread @commitlint/rules/src/signed-off-by.ts

Comment thread @commitlint/rules/src/signed-off-by.test.ts

Comment thread @commitlint/rules/src/signed-off-by.ts Outdated

mzedel force-pushed the fix/signed-off-by-cherries branch from e8be3cc to 08471b7 Compare February 18, 2026 19:15

escapedcat merged commit 691a52d into conventional-changelog:master Feb 19, 2026
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fix(rules): ignore cherry-picks in signed-off-by#4625

fix(rules): ignore cherry-picks in signed-off-by#4625
escapedcat merged 1 commit intoconventional-changelog:masterfrom
mzedel:fix/signed-off-by-cherries

mzedel commented Feb 18, 2026

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mzedel commented Feb 18, 2026

Description

Motivation and Context

Usage examples

How Has This Been Tested?

Types of changes

Checklist:

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qodo-code-review Bot commented Feb 18, 2026

Review Summary by Qodo

Walkthroughs

File Changes

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