^^^^^^
The `from` command is used to specify the commit to initialize
this branch from. This revision will be the first ancestor of the
-new commit.
+new commit. The state of the tree built at this commit will begin
+with the state at the `from` commit, and be altered by the content
+modifications in this commit.
Omitting the `from` command in the first commit of a new branch
will cause fast-import to create that commit with no ancestor. This
`merge`
^^^^^^^
-Includes one additional ancestor commit. If the `from` command is
+Includes one additional ancestor commit. The additional ancestry
+link does not change the way the tree state is built at this commit.
+If the `from` command is
omitted when creating a new branch, the first `merge` commit will be
the first ancestor of the current commit, and the branch will start
out with no files. An unlimited number of `merge` commands per
slash `/`), may contain any byte other than `LF`, and must not
start with double quote (`"`).
-If an `LF` or double quote must be encoded into `<path>` shell-style
-quoting should be used, e.g. `"path/with\n and \" in it"`.
+A path can use C-style string quoting; this is accepted in all cases
+and mandatory if the filename starts with double quote or contains
+`LF`. In C-style quoting, the complete name should be surrounded with
+double quotes, and any `LF`, backslash, or double quote characters
+must be escaped by preceding them with a backslash (e.g.,
+`"path/with\n, \\ and \" in it"`).
The value of `<path>` must be in canonical form. That is it must not: