index 668923893e12f85e363c3f5b9e66404127f8b841..6d7cf6d51fc5c2511c8ed411ed36aefd93d4ad60 100644 (file)
History Simplification
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
History Simplification
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-When optional paths are given, 'git-rev-list' simplifies commits with
-various strategies, according to the options you have selected.
+Sometimes you are only interested in parts of the history, for example the
+commits modifying a particular <path>. But there are two parts of
+'History Simplification', one part is selecting the commits and the other
+is how to do it, as there are various strategies to simplify the history.
+
+The following options select the commits to be shown:
+
+<paths>::
+
+ Commits modifying the given <paths> are selected.
+
+--simplify-by-decoration::
+
+ Commits that are referred by some branch or tag are selected.
+
+Note that extra commits can be shown to give a meaningful history.
+
+The following options affect the way the simplification is performed:
+
+Default mode::
+
+ Simplifies the history to the simplest history explaining the
+ final state of the tree. Simplest because it prunes some side
+ branches if the end result is the same (i.e. merging branches
+ with the same content)
+
+--full-history::
+
+ As the default mode but does not prune some history.
+
+--dense::
+
+ Only the selected commits are shown, plus some to have a
+ meaningful history.
+
+--sparse::
+
+ All commits in the simplified history are shown.
+
+--simplify-merges::
+
+ Additional option to '--full-history' to remove some needless
+ merges from the resulting history, as there are no selected
+ commits contributing to this merge.
+
+A more detailed explanation follows.
Suppose you specified `foo` as the <paths>. We shall call commits
that modify `foo` !TREESAME, and the rest TREESAME. (In a diff
Suppose you specified `foo` as the <paths>. We shall call commits
that modify `foo` !TREESAME, and the rest TREESAME. (In a diff
the included and excluded commits. Thus, if
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the included and excluded commits. Thus, if
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
- $ git-rev-list --bisect foo ^bar ^baz
+ $ git rev-list --bisect foo ^bar ^baz
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
outputs 'midpoint', the output of the two commands
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
outputs 'midpoint', the output of the two commands
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
- $ git-rev-list foo ^midpoint
- $ git-rev-list midpoint ^bar ^baz
+ $ git rev-list foo ^midpoint
+ $ git rev-list midpoint ^bar ^baz
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change which
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change which