'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 than it is a 'best common
+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 bases between two commits.
+merge base for a pair of commits.
-Among the two commits to compute their merge bases, one is specified by
+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, giving only
-two commits from the command line means computing the merge base between
+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.
OPTIONS
the merge base between 'A' and 'B' is '1'.
Given three commits 'A', 'B' and 'C', `git merge-base A B C` will compute the
-merge base between 'A' and an hypothetical commit 'M', which is a merge
+merge base between 'A' and a hypothetical commit 'M', which is a merge
between 'B' and 'C'. For example, with this topology:
o---o---o---o---C
because '2' is an ancestor of '1'. Hence, '2' is not a merge base.
When the history involves criss-cross merges, there can be more than one
-'best' common ancestors between two commits. For example, with this
-topology:
+'best' common ancestor for two commits. For example, with this topology:
---1---o---A
\ /
/ \
---2---o---o---B
-both '1' and '2' are merge-base of A and B. Neither one is better than
-the other (both are 'best' merge base). When `--all` option is not given,
+both '1' and '2' are merge-bases of A and B. Neither one is better than
+the other (both are 'best' merge bases). When the `--all` option is not given,
it is unspecified which best one is output.
Author