Merge branch 'maint'

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

diff --git a/Documentation/git-revert.txt b/Documentation/git-revert.txt
index 5e6adfcea378771c19bb79563463875c6e7f513e..5e1175800a11d9e6a63102063af782757464d72e 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/git-revert.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-revert.txt
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ git-revert - Revert an existing commit
 
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
-'git-revert' [--edit | --no-edit] [-n] [-m parent-number] [-s] <commit>
+'git revert' [--edit | --no-edit] [-n] [-m parent-number] [-s] <commit>
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
@@ -15,6 +15,15 @@ Given one existing commit, revert the change the patch introduces, and record a
 new commit that records it.  This requires your working tree to be clean (no
 modifications from the HEAD commit).
 
+Note: 'git revert' is used to record a new commit to reverse the
+effect of an earlier commit (often a faulty one).  If you want to
+throw away all uncommitted changes in your working directory, you
+should see linkgit:git-reset[1], particularly the '--hard' option.  If
+you want to extract specific files as they were in another commit, you
+should see linkgit:git-checkout[1], specifically the 'git checkout
+<commit> -- <filename>' syntax.  Take care with these alternatives as
+both will discard uncommitted changes in your working directory.
+
 OPTIONS
 -------
 <commit>::
@@ -22,42 +31,54 @@ OPTIONS
        For a more complete list of ways to spell commit names, see
        "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in linkgit:git-rev-parse[1].
 
--e|--edit::
-       With this option, `git-revert` will let you edit the commit
+-e::
+--edit::
+       With this option, 'git-revert' will let you edit the commit
        message prior to committing the revert. This is the default if
        you run the command from a terminal.
 
--m parent-number|--mainline parent-number::
+-m parent-number::
+--mainline parent-number::
        Usually you cannot revert a merge because you do not know which
        side of the merge should be considered the mainline.  This
        option specifies the parent number (starting from 1) of
        the mainline and allows revert to reverse the change
        relative to the specified parent.
++
+Reverting a merge commit declares that you will never want the tree changes
+brought in by the merge.  As a result, later merges will only bring in tree
+changes introduced by commits that are not ancestors of the previously
+reverted merge.  This may or may not be what you want.
++
+See the link:howto/revert-a-faulty-merge.txt[revert-a-faulty-merge How-To] for
+more details.
 
 --no-edit::
-       With this option, `git-revert` will not start the commit
+       With this option, 'git-revert' will not start the commit
        message editor.
 
--n|--no-commit::
+-n::
+--no-commit::
        Usually the command automatically creates a commit with
-       a commit log message stating which commit was reverted.
-       This flag applies the change necessary to revert the
-       named commit to your working tree, but does not make the
-       commit.  In addition, when this option is used, your
-       working tree does not have to match the HEAD commit.
-       The revert is done against the beginning state of your
-       working tree.
+       a commit log message stating which commit was
+       reverted.  This flag applies the change necessary
+       to revert the named commit to your working tree
+       and the index, but does not make the commit.  In addition,
+       when this option is used, your index does not have to match
+       the HEAD commit.  The revert is done against the
+       beginning state of your index.
 +
 This is useful when reverting more than one commits'
-effect to your working tree in a row.
+effect to your index in a row.
 
--s|--signoff::
+-s::
+--signoff::
        Add Signed-off-by line at the end of the commit message.
 
 
 Author
 ------
-Written by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
+Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
 
 Documentation
 --------------