Merge branch 'mg/fix-build-remote-helpers' into maint

[git.git] / Documentation / git-merge-base.txt

diff --git a/Documentation/git-merge-base.txt b/Documentation/git-merge-base.txt
index 767486c770afd385d118ee5f9a6f9cd3ad0a2d73..eedef1bb1a14591d23b1fe6e93da1e3c2be2786b 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/git-merge-base.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-merge-base.txt
@@ -8,30 +8,49 @@ git-merge-base - Find as good common ancestors as possible for a merge
 
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
-'git merge-base' [--all] <commit> <commit>...
+[verse]
+'git merge-base' [-a|--all] [--octopus] <commit> <commit>...
+'git merge-base' --independent <commit>...
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
 
-'git-merge-base' finds best common ancestor(s) between two commits to use
+'git merge-base' finds best common ancestor(s) between two commits to use
 in a three-way merge.  One common ancestor is 'better' than another common
 ancestor if the latter is an ancestor of the former.  A common ancestor
 that does not have any better common ancestor is a 'best common
 ancestor', i.e. a 'merge base'.  Note that there can be more than one
 merge base for a pair of commits.
 
-Among the two commits to compute the merge base from, one is specified by
-the first commit argument on the command line; the other commit is a
-(possibly hypothetical) commit that is a merge across all the remaining
-commits on the command line.  As the most common special case, specifying only
-two commits on the command line means computing the merge base between
-the given two commits.
+Unless `--octopus` is given, among the two commits to compute the merge
+base from, one is specified by the first commit argument on the command
+line; the other commit is a (possibly hypothetical) commit that is a merge
+across all the remaining commits on the command line.  As the most common
+special case, specifying only two commits on the command line means
+computing the merge base between the given two commits.
+
+As a consequence, the 'merge base' is not necessarily contained in each of the
+commit arguments if more than two commits are specified. This is different
+from linkgit:git-show-branch[1] when used with the `--merge-base` option.
 
 OPTIONS
 -------
+-a::
 --all::
        Output all merge bases for the commits, instead of just one.
 
+--octopus::
+       Compute the best common ancestors of all supplied commits,
+       in preparation for an n-way merge.  This mimics the behavior
+       of 'git show-branch --merge-base'.
+
+--independent::
+       Instead of printing merge bases, print a minimal subset of
+       the supplied commits with the same ancestors.  In other words,
+       among the commits given, list those which cannot be reached
+       from any other.  This mimics the behavior of 'git show-branch
+       --independent'.
+
 DISCUSSION
 ----------
 
@@ -91,6 +110,12 @@ Documentation
 --------------
 Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 
+See also
+--------
+linkgit:git-rev-list[1],
+linkgit:git-show-branch[1],
+linkgit:git-merge[1]
+
 GIT
 ---
 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite