Commit Graph

104 Commits

Author SHA1 Message Date
Łukasz Gryglicki
14d01b4f07 merge: add a --signoff flag
Some projects require every commit, even merges, to be signed off
[*1*].  Because "git merge" does not have a "--signoff" option like
"git commit" does, the user needs to add one manually when the
command presents an editor to describe the merge, or later use "git
commit --amend --signoff".

Help developers of these projects by teaching "--signoff" option to
"git merge".

*1* https://public-inbox.org/git/CAHv71zK5SqbwrBFX=a8-DY9H3KT4FEyMgv__p2gZzNr0WUAPUw@mail.gmail.com/T/#u

Requested-by: Dan Kohn <dan@linuxfoundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Łukasz Gryglicki <lukaszgryglicki@o2.pl>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2017-07-25 12:11:47 -07:00
Junio C Hamano
1fdbfc443e Merge branch 'jc/merge-drop-old-syntax'
Stop supporting "git merge <message> HEAD <commit>" syntax that has
been deprecated since October 2007, and issues a deprecation
warning message since v2.5.0.

* jc/merge-drop-old-syntax:
  merge: drop 'git merge <message> HEAD <commit>' syntax
2017-03-30 14:07:13 -07:00
Chris Packham
367ff69428 merge: add '--continue' option as a synonym for 'git commit'
Teach 'git merge' the --continue option which allows 'continuing' a
merge by completing it. The traditional way of completing a merge after
resolving conflicts is to use 'git commit'. Now with commands like 'git
rebase' and 'git cherry-pick' having a '--continue' option adding such
an option to 'git merge' presents a consistent UI.

Signed-off-by: Chris Packham <judge.packham@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2016-12-14 10:02:04 -08:00
Junio C Hamano
09c2cb877a pull: pass --allow-unrelated-histories to "git merge"
The previous commit said:

    We could add the same option to "git pull" and have it passed
    through to underlying "git merge".  I do not have a fundamental
    opposition against such a feature, but this commit does not do
    so and instead leaves it as low-hanging fruit for others,
    because such a "two project merge" would be done after fetching
    the other project into some location in the working tree of an
    existing project and making sure how well they fit together, it
    is sufficient to allow a local merge without such an option
    pass-through from "git pull" to "git merge".

Prepare a patch to make it a reality, just in case it is needed.

Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2016-04-21 11:58:51 -07:00
Junio C Hamano
e379fdf34f merge: refuse to create too cool a merge by default
While it makes sense to allow merging unrelated histories of two
projects that started independently into one, in the way "gitk" was
merged to "git" itself aka "the coolest merge ever", such a merge is
still an unusual event.	 Worse, if somebody creates an independent
history by starting from a tarball of an established project and
sends a pull request to the original project, "git merge" however
happily creates such a merge without any sign of something unusual
is happening.

Teach "git merge" to refuse to create such a merge by default,
unless the user passes a new "--allow-unrelated-histories" option to
tell it that the user is aware that two unrelated projects are
merged.

Because such a "two project merge" is a rare event, a configuration
option to always allow such a merge is not added.

We could add the same option to "git pull" and have it passed
through to underlying "git merge".  I do not have a fundamental
opposition against such a feature, but this commit does not do so
and instead leaves it as low-hanging fruit for others, because such
a "two project merge" would be done after fetching the other project
into some location in the working tree of an existing project and
making sure how well they fit together, it is sufficient to allow a
local merge without such an option pass-through from "git pull" to
"git merge".  Many tests that are updated by this patch does the
pass-through manually by turning:

	git pull something

into its equivalent:

	git fetch something &&
	git merge --allow-unrelated-histories FETCH_HEAD

If somebody is inclined to add such an option, updated tests in this
change need to be adjusted back to:

	git pull --allow-unrelated-histories something

Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2016-03-23 12:04:48 -07:00
Junio C Hamano
e13d854322 Merge branch 'mm/keyid-docs'
Very small number of options take a parameter that is optional
(which is not a great UI element as they can only appear at the end
of the command line).  Add notice to documentation of each and
every one of them.

* mm/keyid-docs:
  Documentation: explain optional arguments better
  Documentation/grep: fix documentation of -O
  Documentation: use 'keyid' consistently, not 'key-id'
2015-10-05 12:30:26 -07:00
Matthieu Moy
2b594bf90d Documentation: explain optional arguments better
Improve the documentation of commands taking optional arguments in two
ways:

* Documents the behavior of '-O' (for grep) and '-S' (for commands
  creating commits) when used without the optional argument.

* Document the syntax of these options.

For the second point, the behavior is documented in gitcli(7), but it is
easy for users to miss, and hard for the same user to understand why e.g.
"git status -u no" does not work.

Document this explicitly in the documentation of each short option having
an optional argument: they are the most error prone since there is no '='
sign between the option and its argument.

Signed-off-by: Matthieu Moy <Matthieu.Moy@imag.fr>
Reviewed-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2015-09-21 10:48:23 -07:00
Matthieu Moy
340f2c5e63 Documentation: use 'keyid' consistently, not 'key-id'
Signed-off-by: Matthieu Moy <Matthieu.Moy@imag.fr>
Reviewed-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2015-09-21 10:48:17 -07:00
Junio C Hamano
a2654356d4 Merge branch 'po/doc-branch-desc'
The branch descriptions that are set with "git branch --edit-description"
option were used in many places but they weren't clearly documented.

* po/doc-branch-desc:
  doc: show usage of branch description
2015-09-17 12:29:03 -07:00
Philip Oakley
561d2b7934 doc: show usage of branch description
The branch description will be included in 'git format-patch
--cover-letter' and in 'git pull-request' emails. It can also
be used in the automatic merge message. Tell the reader.

While here, clarify that the description may be a multi-line
explanation of the purpose of the branch's patch series.

Signed-off-by: Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.org>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2015-09-14 12:50:33 -07:00
Junio C Hamano
bcd1ecd08a Merge branch 'jc/merge'
"git merge FETCH_HEAD" learned that the previous "git fetch" could
be to create an Octopus merge, i.e. recording multiple branches
that are not marked as "not-for-merge"; this allows us to lose an
old style invocation "git merge <msg> HEAD $commits..." in the
implementation of "git pull" script; the old style syntax can now
be deprecated.

* jc/merge:
  merge: deprecate 'git merge <message> HEAD <commit>' syntax
  merge: handle FETCH_HEAD internally
  merge: decide if we auto-generate the message early in collect_parents()
  merge: make collect_parents() auto-generate the merge message
  merge: extract prepare_merge_message() logic out
  merge: narrow scope of merge_names
  merge: split reduce_parents() out of collect_parents()
  merge: clarify collect_parents() logic
  merge: small leakfix and code simplification
  merge: do not check argc to determine number of remote heads
  merge: clarify "pulling into void" special case
  t5520: test pulling an octopus into an unborn branch
  t5520: style fixes
  merge: simplify code flow
  merge: test the top-level merge driver
2015-05-19 13:17:57 -07:00
Junio C Hamano
b4391657ed merge: drop 'git merge <message> HEAD <commit>' syntax
And then if we and our users survived the previous "start warning if
the old syntax is used" patch for a few years, we could apply this
to actually drop the support for the ancient syntax.

Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2015-04-29 13:54:40 -07:00
Junio C Hamano
74e8bc59cb merge: handle FETCH_HEAD internally
The collect_parents() function now is responsible for

 1. parsing the commits given on the command line into a list of
    commits to be merged;

 2. filtering these parents into independent ones; and

 3. optionally calling fmt_merge_msg() via prepare_merge_message()
    to prepare an auto-generated merge log message, using fake
    contents that FETCH_HEAD would have had if these commits were
    fetched from the current repository with "git pull . $args..."

Make "git merge FETCH_HEAD" to be the same as the traditional

    git merge "$(git fmt-merge-msg <.git/FETCH_HEAD)" $commits

invocation of the command in "git pull", where $commits are the ones
that appear in FETCH_HEAD that are not marked as not-for-merge, by
making it do a bit more, specifically:

 - noticing "FETCH_HEAD" is the only "commit" on the command line
   and picking the commits that are not marked as not-for-merge as
   the list of commits to be merged (substitute for step #1 above);

 - letting the resulting list fed to step #2 above;

 - doing the step #3 above, using the contents of the FETCH_HEAD
   instead of fake contents crafted from the list of commits parsed
   in the step #1 above.

Note that this changes the semantics.  "git merge FETCH_HEAD" has
always behaved as if the first commit in the FETCH_HEAD file were
directly specified on the command line, creating a two-way merge
whose auto-generated merge log said "merge commit xyz".  With this
change, if the previous fetch was to grab multiple branches (e.g.
"git fetch $there topic-a topic-b"), the new world order is to
create an octopus, behaving as if "git pull $there topic-a topic-b"
were run.  This is a deliberate change to make that happen, and
can be seen in the changes to t3033 tests.

Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2015-04-29 13:27:31 -07:00
Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy
da0005b885 *config.txt: stick to camelCase naming convention
This should improve readability. Compare "thislongname" and
"thisLongName". The following keys are left in unchanged. We can
decide what to do with them later.

 - am.keepcr
 - core.autocrlf .safecrlf .trustctime
 - diff.dirstat .noprefix
 - gitcvs.usecrlfattr
 - gui.blamehistoryctx .trustmtime
 - pull.twohead
 - receive.autogc
 - sendemail.signedoffbycc .smtpsslcertpath .suppresscc

Helped-by: Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>
Signed-off-by: Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy <pclouds@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2015-03-13 22:13:46 -07:00
Felipe Contreras
a01f7f2ba0 merge: enable defaulttoupstream by default
There's no point in this:

% git merge
fatal: No commit specified and merge.defaultToUpstream not set.

We know the most likely scenario is that the user wants to merge the
upstream, and if not, he can set merge.defaultToUpstream to false.

Signed-off-by: Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2014-04-22 12:53:59 -07:00
Junio C Hamano
e703d7118c parse-options: multi-word argh should use dash to separate words
"When you need to use space, use dash" is a strange way to say that
you must not use a space.  Because it is more common for the command
line descriptions to use dashed-multi-words, you do not even want to
use spaces in these places.  Rephrase the documentation to avoid
this strangeness.

Fix a few existing multi-word argument help strings, i.e.

 - GPG key-ids given to -S/--gpg-sign are "key-id";
 - Refs used for storing notes are "notes-ref"; and
 - Expiry timestamps given to --expire are "expiry-date".

and update the corresponding documentation pages.

Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2014-03-24 10:43:34 -07:00
Nicolas Vigier
5f737ac91b git-merge: document the -S option
The option to gpg sign a merge commit is available but was not
documented. Use wording from the git-commit(1) manpage.

Signed-off-by: Nicolas Vigier <boklm@mars-attacks.org>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2013-10-18 12:47:33 -07:00
Junio C Hamano
69490f3459 Merge branch 'maint-1.8.2' into maint-1.8.3
* maint-1.8.2:
  Documentation/git-merge.txt: fix formatting of example block
2013-09-05 14:24:52 -07:00
Andreas Schwab
e45bda876a Documentation/git-merge.txt: fix formatting of example block
You need at least four dashes in a line to have it recognized as listing
block delimiter by asciidoc.

Signed-off-by: Andreas Schwab <schwab@linux-m68k.org>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2013-09-05 10:50:49 -07:00
Junio C Hamano
4f9f1f5d56 Merge branch 'mm/merge-in-dirty-worktree-doc' into maint
* mm/merge-in-dirty-worktree-doc:
  Documentation/git-merge.txt: weaken warning about uncommited changes
2013-07-21 22:51:32 -07:00
Matthieu Moy
76b80cdf17 Documentation/git-merge.txt: weaken warning about uncommited changes
Commit 35d2fffd introduced 'git merge --abort' as a synonym to 'git reset
--merge', and added some failing tests in t7611-merge-abort.sh (search
'###' in this file) showing that 'git merge --abort' could not always
recover the pre-merge state.

Still, in many cases, 'git merge --abort' just works, and it is usually
considered that the ability to start a merge with uncommited changes is
an important property of Git.

Weaken the warning by discouraging only merge with /non-trivial/
uncommited changes.

Signed-off-by: Matthieu Moy <Matthieu.Moy@imag.fr>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2013-06-18 09:19:19 -07:00
Felipe Contreras
0460ed2c93 documentation: trivial style cleanups
White-spaces, missing braces, standardize --[no-]foo.

Signed-off-by: Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2013-05-17 12:09:21 -07:00
Junio C Hamano
ab24e7521c Merge branch 'yd/doc-merge-annotated-tag' into maint
* yd/doc-merge-annotated-tag:
  Documentation: merging a tag is a special case
2013-04-01 09:19:37 -07:00
Junio C Hamano
f1c8d8338f Merge branch 'yd/doc-merge-annotated-tag'
Document the 1.7.9 feature to merge a signed tag and keep that in
the mergetag header in the resulting commit better.

* yd/doc-merge-annotated-tag:
  Documentation: merging a tag is a special case
2013-03-28 14:38:17 -07:00
Junio C Hamano
77c72780ed Documentation: merging a tag is a special case
When asking Git to merge a tag (such as a signed tag or annotated tag),
it will always create a merge commit even if fast-forward was possible.
It's like having --no-ff present on the command line.

It's a difference from the default behavior described in git-merge.txt.
It should be documented as an exception of "FAST-FORWARD MERGE" section
and "--ff" option description.

Reviewed-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Yann Droneaud <ydroneaud@opteya.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2013-03-21 15:47:38 -07:00
Thomas Ackermann
2de9b71138 Documentation: the name of the system is 'Git', not 'git'
Signed-off-by: Thomas Ackermann <th.acker@arcor.de>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2013-02-01 13:53:33 -08:00
Matthieu Moy
a6d3bde5af Documentation: remote tracking branch -> remote-tracking branch
This change was already done by 0e615b252f (Matthieu Moy, Tue Nov 2
2010, Replace "remote tracking" with "remote-tracking"), but new
instances of remote tracking (without dash) were introduced in the
meantime.

Signed-off-by: Matthieu Moy <Matthieu.Moy@imag.fr>
Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
2012-10-25 06:55:46 -04:00
Štěpán Němec
edfbbf7eea doc: A few minor copy edits.
- (glossary) the quotes around the Wikipedia URL prevented its
  linkification in frontends that support it; remove them

- (manual) newer version (SHA-1) == following, older == preceding, not
  the other way around

- trivial typo and wording fixes

Signed-off-by: Štěpán Němec <stepnem@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2012-07-14 22:32:28 -07:00
Junio C Hamano
f8246281af merge: use editor by default in interactive sessions
Traditionally, a cleanly resolved merge was committed by "git merge" using
the auto-generated merge commit log message without invoking the editor.

After 5 years of use in the field, it turns out that people perform too
many unjustified merges of the upstream history into their topic branches.
These merges are not just useless, but they are often not explained well,
and making the end result unreadable when it gets time for merging their
history back to their upstream.

Earlier we added the "--edit" option to the command, so that people can
edit the log message to explain and justify their merge commits. Let's
take it one step further and spawn the editor by default when we are in an
interactive session (i.e. the standard input and the standard output are
pointing at the same tty device).

There may be existing scripts that leave the standard input and the
standard output of the "git merge" connected to whatever environment the
scripts were started, and such invocation might trigger the above
"interactive session" heuristics.  GIT_MERGE_AUTOEDIT environment variable
can be set to "no" at the beginning of such scripts to use the historical
behaviour while the script runs.

Note that this backward compatibility is meant only for scripts, and we
deliberately do *not* support "merge.edit = yes/no/auto" configuration
option to allow people to keep the historical behaviour.

Suggested-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2012-01-23 14:34:55 -08:00
Junio C Hamano
ffc5e3c958 Merge branch 'jc/merge-sans-branch'
* jc/merge-sans-branch:
  merge: merge with the default upstream branch without argument
  merge: match the help text with the documentation

Conflicts:
	builtin/merge.c
2011-04-01 17:57:16 -07:00
Junio C Hamano
93e535a5b7 merge: merge with the default upstream branch without argument
"git merge" without specifying any commit is a no-op by default.

A new option merge.defaultupstream can be set to true to cause such an
invocation of the command to merge the upstream branches configured for
the current branch by using their last observed values stored in their
remote tracking branches.

Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2011-03-24 00:37:25 -07:00
Jeff King
48bb914ed6 doc: drop author/documentation sections from most pages
The point of these sections is generally to:

  1. Give credit where it is due.

  2. Give the reader an idea of where to ask questions or
     file bug reports.

But they don't do a good job of either case. For (1), they
are out of date and incomplete. A much more accurate answer
can be gotten through shortlog or blame.  For (2), the
correct contact point is generally git@vger, and even if you
wanted to cc the contact point, the out-of-date and
incomplete fields mean you're likely sending to somebody
useless.

So let's drop the fields entirely from all manpages except
git(1) itself. We already point people to the mailing list
for bug reports there, and we can update the Authors section
to give credit to the major contributors and point to
shortlog and blame for more information.

Each page has a "This is part of git" footer, so people can
follow that to the main git manpage.
2011-03-11 10:59:16 -05:00
Junio C Hamano
657072f3ac Merge branch 'jh/notes-merge'
* jh/notes-merge: (23 commits)
  Provide 'git merge --abort' as a synonym to 'git reset --merge'
  cmd_merge(): Parse options before checking MERGE_HEAD
  Provide 'git notes get-ref' to easily retrieve current notes ref
  git notes merge: Add testcases for merging notes trees at different fanouts
  git notes merge: Add another auto-resolving strategy: "cat_sort_uniq"
  git notes merge: --commit should fail if underlying notes ref has moved
  git notes merge: List conflicting notes in notes merge commit message
  git notes merge: Manual conflict resolution, part 2/2
  git notes merge: Manual conflict resolution, part 1/2
  Documentation: Preliminary docs on 'git notes merge'
  git notes merge: Add automatic conflict resolvers (ours, theirs, union)
  git notes merge: Handle real, non-conflicting notes merges
  builtin/notes.c: Refactor creation of notes commits.
  git notes merge: Initial implementation handling trivial merges only
  builtin/notes.c: Split notes ref DWIMmery into a separate function
  notes.c: Use two newlines (instead of one) when concatenating notes
  (trivial) t3303: Indent with tabs instead of spaces for consistency
  notes.h/c: Propagate combine_notes_fn return value to add_note() and beyond
  notes.h/c: Allow combine_notes functions to remove notes
  notes.c: Reorder functions in preparation for next commit
  ...

Conflicts:
	builtin.h
2010-12-08 11:24:12 -08:00
Johan Herland
35d2fffdb8 Provide 'git merge --abort' as a synonym to 'git reset --merge'
Teach 'git merge' the --abort option, which verifies the existence of
MERGE_HEAD and then invokes 'git reset --merge' to abort the current
in-progress merge and attempt to reconstruct the pre-merge state.

The reason for adding this option is to provide a user interface for
aborting an in-progress merge that is consistent with the interface
for aborting a rebase ('git rebase --abort'), aborting the application
of a patch series ('git am --abort'), and aborting an in-progress notes
merge ('git notes merge --abort').

The patch includes documentation and testcases that explain and verify
the various scenarios in which 'git merge --abort' can run. The
testcases also document the cases in which 'git merge --abort' is
unable to correctly restore the pre-merge state (look for the '###'
comments towards the bottom of t/t7609-merge-abort.sh).

This patch has been improved by the following contributions:
- Jonathan Nieder: Move test documentation into test_description

Thanks-to: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Johan Herland <johan@herland.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2010-11-17 13:23:55 -08:00
Nathan W. Panike
af77aee9ca Fix a formatting error in git-merge.txt
Inside an element of an enumerated list, the second and subsequent
paragraphs need to lose their indent and have to be strung together with a
line with a single '+' on it instead.  Otherwise the lines below are shown
in typewriter face, which just looks wrong.

Signed-off-by: Nathan W. Panike <nathan.panike@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2010-10-29 10:16:35 -07:00
Tay Ray Chuan
f0ecac2b70 merge: --log appends shortlog to message if specified
When the user specifies a message, use fmt_merge_msg_shortlog() to
append the shortlog.

Previously, when a message was specified, we ignored the merge title
("Merge <foo> into <bar>") and shortlog from fmt_merge_msg().

Update the documentation for -m to reflect this too.

Signed-off-by: Tay Ray Chuan <rctay89@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2010-05-10 12:02:20 -07:00
Marc Branchaud
adda3c3beb Docs: Add -X option to git-merge's synopsis.
Also move -X's description next to -s's in merge-options.txt.

This makes it easier to learn how to specify merge strategy options.

Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2010-04-12 09:50:09 -07:00
Junio C Hamano
77b3b7969d Merge branch 'doc-style/for-next' of git://repo.or.cz/git/trast
* 'doc-style/for-next' of git://repo.or.cz/git/trast:
  Documentation: merge: use MERGE_HEAD to refer to the remote branch
  Documentation: simplify How Merge Works
  Documentation: merge: add a section about fast-forward
  Documentation: emphasize when git merge terminates early
  Documentation: merge: add an overview
  Documentation: merge: move merge strategy list to end
  Documentation: suggest `reset --merge` in How Merge Works section
  Documentation: merge: move configuration section to end
  Documentation: emphasise 'git shortlog' in its synopsis
  Documentation: show-files is now called git-ls-files
  Documentation: tiny git config manual tweaks
  Documentation: git gc packs refs by default now

Conflicts:
	Documentation/config.txt
2010-01-24 10:58:57 -08:00
Jonathan Nieder
3588cf9481 Documentation: merge: use MERGE_HEAD to refer to the remote branch
commit 57bddb11 (Documentation/git-merge: reword references to
"remote" and "pull", 2010-01-07) fixed the manual to drop the
assumption that the other branch being merged is from a remote
repository.  Unfortunately, in a few places, to do so it
introduced the antecedentless phrase "their versions".  Worse, in
passages like the following, 'they' is playing two roles.

|   highlighting changes from both the HEAD and their versions.
|
| * Look at the diffs on their own. 'git log --merge -p <path>'

Using HEAD and MERGE_HEAD nicely assigns terminology to "our" and
"their" sides.  It also provides the reader with practice using
names that git will recognize on the command line.

Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>
2010-01-24 13:57:59 +01:00
Jonathan Nieder
ebef7e5049 Documentation: simplify How Merge Works
The user most likely does not care about the exact order of
operations because he cannot see it happening anyway.  Instead,
try to explain what it means to merge two commits into a single
tree.

While at it:

 - Change the heading to TRUE MERGE.  The entire manual page is
   about how merges work.

 - Document MERGE_HEAD.  It is a useful feature, since it makes
   the parents of the intended merge commit easier to refer to.

 - Do not assume commits named on the 'git merge' command line come
   from another repository.  For simplicity, the discussion of
   conflicts still does assume that there is only one and it is a
   branch head.

 - Do not start list items with `code`.  Otherwise, a toolchain bug
   produces a line break in the generated nroff, resulting in odd
   extra space.

Suggested-by: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>
2010-01-24 13:57:42 +01:00
Jonathan Nieder
29280311f0 Documentation: merge: add a section about fast-forward
Novices sometimes find the behavior of 'git merge' in the
fast-forward case surprising.  Describe it thoroughly.

Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>
2010-01-24 13:57:42 +01:00
Jonathan Nieder
30f2bade84 Documentation: emphasize when git merge terminates early
A merge-based operation in git can fail in two ways: one that
stops before touching anything, or one that goes ahead and
results in conflicts.

As the 'git merge' manual explains:

| A merge is always between the current `HEAD` and one or more
| commits (usually, branch head or tag), and the index file must
| match the tree of `HEAD` commit (i.e. the contents of the last commit)
| when it starts out.

Unfortunately, the placement of this sentence makes it easy to
skip over, and its formulation leaves the important point, that
any other attempted merge will be gracefully aborted, unspoken.

So give this point its own section and expand upon it.

Probably this could be simplified somewhat: after all, a change
registered in the index is just a special kind of local
uncommited change, so the second added paragraph is only a
special case of the first.  It seemed more helpful to be explicit
here.

Inspired by <http://gitster.livejournal.com/25801.html>.

Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>
2010-01-24 13:57:42 +01:00
Jonathan Nieder
b40bb374a6 Documentation: merge: add an overview
The reader unfamiliar with the concepts of branching and merging
would have been completely lost.  Try to help him with a diagram.

Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>
2010-01-24 13:57:42 +01:00
Jonathan Nieder
a4081bacfc Documentation: merge: move merge strategy list to end
So the section layout changes as follows:

 NAME
 SYNOPSIS
 DESCRIPTION
 OPTIONS
-MERGE STRATEGIES
 HOW MERGE WORKS
 HOW CONFLICTS ARE PRESENTED
 HOW TO RESOLVE CONFLICTS
 EXAMPLES
+MERGE STRATEGIES
 CONFIGURATION
 SEE ALSO
 AUTHOR
 DOCUMENTATION
 GIT
 NOTES

The first-time user will care more about conflicts than about
strategies other than 'recursive'.

One of the examples uses -s ours, but I do not think this hinders
readability.

Suggested-by: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>
2010-01-24 13:57:42 +01:00
Jonathan Nieder
ed4a6baad0 Documentation: suggest reset --merge in How Merge Works section
The 'merge' manual suggests 'reset' to cancel a merge at the end
of the Merge Strategies list.  It is more logical to explain this
right before explaining how merge conflicts work, so the daunted
reader can have a way out when he or she needs it most.

While at it, make the advice more dependable and self-contained
by providing the --merge option.

Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>
2010-01-24 13:57:42 +01:00
Jonathan Nieder
35e9d6303c Documentation: merge: move configuration section to end
Configuration and environment variables belong to the back matter
of a manual page.

Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Acked-by: Petr Baudis <pasky@suse.cz>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>
2010-01-24 13:57:42 +01:00
Junio C Hamano
add0951ab0 Merge remote branch 'remotes/trast-doc/for-next'
* remotes/trast-doc/for-next:
  Documentation: spell 'git cmd' without dash throughout
  Documentation: format full commands in typewriter font
  Documentation: warn prominently against merging with dirty trees
  Documentation/git-merge: reword references to "remote" and "pull"

Conflicts:
	Documentation/config.txt
	Documentation/git-config.txt
	Documentation/git-merge.txt
2010-01-20 20:28:49 -08:00
Thomas Rast
0b444cdb19 Documentation: spell 'git cmd' without dash throughout
The documentation was quite inconsistent when spelling 'git cmd' if it
only refers to the program, not to some specific invocation syntax:
both 'git-cmd' and 'git cmd' spellings exist.

The current trend goes towards dashless forms, and there is precedent
in 647ac70 (git-svn.txt: stop using dash-form of commands.,
2009-07-07) to actively eliminate the dashed variants.

Replace 'git-cmd' with 'git cmd' throughout, except where git-shell,
git-cvsserver, git-upload-pack, git-receive-pack, and
git-upload-archive are concerned, because those really live in the
$PATH.
2010-01-10 13:01:28 +01:00
Thomas Rast
ca768288b6 Documentation: format full commands in typewriter font
Use `code snippet` style instead of 'emphasis' for `git cmd ...`
according to the following rules:

* The SYNOPSIS sections are left untouched.

* If the intent is that the user type the command exactly as given, it
  is `code`.
  If the user is only loosely referred to a command and/or option, it
  remains 'emphasised'.

Signed-off-by: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>
2010-01-10 13:01:25 +01:00
Thomas Rast
e330d8ca1a Documentation: warn prominently against merging with dirty trees
We do this for both git-merge and git-pull, so as to hopefully alert
(over)users of git-pull to the issue.

Signed-off-by: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>
2010-01-09 21:08:26 +01:00