Merge branch 'nd/maint-work-tree-fix' into maint

[git.git] / Documentation / git-rebase.txt

diff --git a/Documentation/git-rebase.txt b/Documentation/git-rebase.txt
index a1b6dce73d2f2075ef163bf4d6cdea1abc6104ce..dfb8a0da5b9338940ce60f2c70bf1801241bc0f7 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/git-rebase.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-rebase.txt
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ git-rebase - Forward-port local commits to the updated upstream head
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
-'git-rebase' [-i | --interactive] [-v | --verbose] [--merge] [-C<n>]
+'git-rebase' [-i | --interactive] [-v | --verbose] [-m | --merge] [-C<n>]
        [-p | --preserve-merges] [--onto <newbase>] <upstream> [<branch>]
 'git-rebase' --continue | --skip | --abort
 
@@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ OPTIONS
 --skip::
        Restart the rebasing process by skipping the current patch.
 
---merge::
+-m, \--merge::
        Use merging strategies to rebase.  When the recursive (default) merge
        strategy is used, this allows rebase to be aware of renames on the
        upstream side.
@@ -211,7 +211,8 @@ OPTIONS
 
 -i, \--interactive::
        Make a list of the commits which are about to be rebased.  Let the
-       user edit that list before rebasing.
+       user edit that list before rebasing.  This mode can also be used to
+       split commits (see SPLITTING COMMITS below).
 
 -p, \--preserve-merges::
        Instead of ignoring merges, try to recreate them.  This option
@@ -292,7 +293,7 @@ rebasing.
 If you want to fold two or more commits into one, replace the command
 "pick" with "squash" for the second and subsequent commit.  If the
 commits had different authors, it will attribute the squashed commit to
-the author of the last commit.
+the author of the first commit.
 
 In both cases, or when a "pick" does not succeed (because of merge
 errors), the loop will stop to let you fix things, and you can continue
@@ -325,6 +326,42 @@ sure that the current HEAD is "B", and call
 $ git rebase -i -p --onto Q O
 -----------------------------
 
+
+SPLITTING COMMITS
+-----------------
+
+In interactive mode, you can mark commits with the action "edit".  However,
+this does not necessarily mean that 'git rebase' expects the result of this
+edit to be exactly one commit.  Indeed, you can undo the commit, or you can
+add other commits.  This can be used to split a commit into two:
+
+- Start an interactive rebase with 'git rebase -i <commit>^', where
+  <commit> is the commit you want to split.  In fact, any commit range
+  will do, as long as it contains that commit.
+
+- Mark the commit you want to split with the action "edit".
+
+- When it comes to editing that commit, execute 'git reset HEAD^'.  The
+  effect is that the HEAD is rewound by one, and the index follows suit.
+  However, the working tree stays the same.
+
+- Now add the changes to the index that you want to have in the first
+  commit.  You can use gitlink:git-add[1] (possibly interactively) and/or
+  gitlink:git-gui[1] to do that.
+
+- Commit the now-current index with whatever commit message is appropriate
+  now.
+
+- Repeat the last two steps until your working tree is clean.
+
+- Continue the rebase with 'git rebase --continue'.
+
+If you are not absolutely sure that the intermediate revisions are
+consistent (they compile, pass the testsuite, etc.) you should use
+gitlink:git-stash[1] to stash away the not-yet-committed changes
+after each commit, test, and amend the commit if fixes are necessary.
+
+
 Authors
 ------
 Written by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> and