--edit::
--no-edit::
- Invoke editor before committing successful merge to further
- edit the default merge message. The `--no-edit` option can be
+ 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) when merging an annotated tag, in which case
- `git merge` automatically spawns the editor so that the result
- of the GPG verification of the tag can be seen.
+ 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 merge an annotated tag. 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.
+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