Merge branch 'jc/doc-merge-options'

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

diff --git a/Documentation/merge-options.txt b/Documentation/merge-options.txt
index 2bd92c474178559cf03f63ffc19098a76a9cf4e2..0bcbe0ac3c474ab12068f468476946b9db5ef3e8 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/merge-options.txt
+++ b/Documentation/merge-options.txt
@@ -8,9 +8,20 @@ failed and do not autocommit, to give the user a chance to
 inspect and further tweak the merge result before committing.
 
 --edit::
--e::
-       Invoke editor before committing successful merge to further
-       edit the default merge message.
+--no-edit::
+       Invoke an editor before committing successful mechanical merge to
+       further edit the auto-generated merge message, so that the user
+       can explain and justify the merge. The `--no-edit` option can be
+       used to accept the auto-generated message (this is generally
+       discouraged). The `--edit` option is still useful if you are
+       giving a draft message with the `-m` option from the command line
+       and want to edit it in the editor.
++
+Older scripts may depend on the historical behaviour of not allowing the
+user to edit the merge log message. They will see an editor opened when
+they run `git merge`. To make it easier to adjust such scripts to the
+updated behaviour, the environment variable `GIT_MERGE_AUTOEDIT` can be
+set to `no` at the beginning of them.
 
 --ff::
        When the merge resolves as a fast-forward, only update the branch