* A colon, optionally followed by a stage number (0 to 3) and a
colon, followed by a path; this names a blob object in the
index at the given path. Missing stage number (and the colon
- that follows it) names an stage 0 entry. During a merge, stage
+ that follows it) names a stage 0 entry. During a merge, stage
1 is the common ancestor, stage 2 is the target branch's version
(typically the current branch), and stage 3 is the version from
the branch being merged.
-Here is an illustration, by Jon Loeliger. Both node B and C are
-a commit parents of commit node A. Parent commits are ordered
+Here is an illustration, by Jon Loeliger. Both commit nodes B
+and C are parents of commit node A. Parent commits are ordered
left-to-right.
G H I J
parents of `r1`. `r1{caret}!` includes commit `r1` but excludes
its all parents.
-Here are a handful examples:
+Here are a handful of examples:
D G H D
D F G H I J D F
Each line of options has this format:
------------
-<opt_spec><arg_spec>? SP+ help LF
+<opt_spec><flags>* SP+ help LF
------------
`<opt_spec>`::
is necessary. `h,help`, `dry-run` and `f` are all three correct
`<opt_spec>`.
-`<arg_spec>`::
- an `<arg_spec>` tells the option parser if the option has an argument
- (`=`), an optional one (`?` though its use is discouraged) or none
- (no `<arg_spec>` in that case).
+`<flags>`::
+ `<flags>` are of `*`, `=`, `?` or `!`.
+ * Use `=` if the option takes an argument.
+
+ * Use `?` to mean that the option is optional (though its use is discouraged).
+
+ * Use `*` to mean that this option should not be listed in the usage
+ generated for the `-h` argument. It's shown for `--help-all` as
+ documented in linkgit:gitcli[5].
+
+ * Use `!` to not make the corresponding negated long option available.
The remainder of the line, after stripping the spaces, is used
as the help associated to the option.