branch --track: code cleanup and saner handling of local branches

diff --git a/Documentation/git-checkout.txt b/Documentation/git-checkout.txt
index f5b2d5017b5710a08c89a7cb150d8ef45527bf99..818b720b914fa33d3a4b5c7858573bd59f0b0945 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/git-checkout.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-checkout.txt
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ git-checkout - Checkout and switch to a branch
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
-'git-checkout' [-q] [-f] [-b [--track | --no-track] <new_branch> [-l]] [-m] [<branch>]
+'git-checkout' [-q] [-f] [[--track | --no-track] -b <new_branch> [-l]] [-m] [<branch>]
 'git-checkout' [<tree-ish>] <paths>...
 
 DESCRIPTION
@@ -23,9 +23,9 @@ options, which will be passed to `git branch`.
 
 When <paths> are given, this command does *not* switch
 branches.  It updates the named paths in the working tree from
-the index file (i.e. it runs `git-checkout-index -f -u`), or a
-named commit.  In
-this case, `-f` and `-b` options are meaningless and giving
+the index file (i.e. it runs `git-checkout-index -f -u`), or
+from a named commit.  In
+this case, the `-f` and `-b` options are meaningless and giving
 either of them results in an error.  <tree-ish> argument can be
 used to specify a specific tree-ish (i.e. commit, tag or tree)
 to update the index for the given paths before updating the
@@ -38,7 +38,8 @@ OPTIONS
        Quiet, supress feedback messages.
 
 -f::
-       Force a re-read of everything.
+       Proceed even if the index or the working tree differs
+       from HEAD.  This is used to throw away local changes.
 
 -b::
        Create a new branch named <new_branch> and start it at
@@ -48,18 +49,22 @@ OPTIONS
 
 --track::
        When -b is given and a branch is created off a remote branch,
-       setup so that git-pull will automatically retrieve data from
-       the remote branch.
+       set up configuration so that git-pull will automatically
+       retrieve data from the remote branch.  Set the
+       branch.autosetupmerge configuration variable to true if you
+       want git-checkout and git-branch to always behave as if
+       '--track' were given.
 
 --no-track::
        When -b is given and a branch is created off a remote branch,
-       force that git-pull will automatically retrieve data from
-       the remote branch independent of the configuration settings.
+       set up configuration so that git-pull will not retrieve data
+       from the remote branch, ignoring the branch.autosetupmerge
+       configuration variable.
 
 -l::
-       Create the new branch's ref log.  This activates recording of
-       all changes to made the branch ref, enabling use of date
-       based sha1 expressions such as "<branchname>@{yesterday}".
+       Create the new branch's reflog.  This activates recording of
+       all changes made to the branch ref, enabling use of date
+       based sha1 expressions such as "<branchname>@\{yesterday}".
 
 -m::
        If you have local modifications to one or more files that
@@ -210,4 +215,3 @@ Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 GIT
 ---
 Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
-