From: Jonathan Nieder Date: Sat, 23 Jan 2010 09:42:46 +0000 (-0600) Subject: Documentation: merge: add an overview X-Git-Tag: v1.7.0-rc0~7^2~4 X-Git-Url: https://git.tokkee.org/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=b40bb374a618534b930ce4da5ffffb215b5cb488;p=git.git 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 Signed-off-by: Thomas Rast --- diff --git a/Documentation/git-merge.txt b/Documentation/git-merge.txt index 83bf3e783..e3c611dd0 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-merge.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-merge.txt @@ -15,8 +15,32 @@ SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION ----------- -Merges the history specified by into HEAD, optionally using a -specific merge strategy. +Incorporates changes from the named commits (since the time their +histories diverged from the current branch) into the current +branch. This command is used by 'git pull' to incorporate changes +from another repository and can be used by hand to merge changes +from one branch into another. + +Assume the following history exists and the current branch is +"`master`": + +------------ + A---B---C topic + / + D---E---F---G master +------------ + +Then "`git merge topic`" will replay the changes made on the +`topic` branch since it diverged from `master` (i.e., `E`) until +its current commit (`C`) on top of `master`, and record the result +in a new commit along with the names of the two parent commits and +a log message from the user describing the changes. + +------------ + A---B---C topic + / \ + D---E---F---G---H master +------------ The second syntax ( `HEAD` ...) is supported for historical reasons. Do not use it from the command line or in