BEHAVIORAL DIFFERENCES
-----------------------
- * empty commits:
+There are some subtle differences how the backends behave.
- am-based rebase will drop any "empty" commits, whether the
- commit started empty (had no changes relative to its parent to
- start with) or ended empty (all changes were already applied
- upstream in other commits).
+Empty commits
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The am backend drops any "empty" commits, regardless of whether the
+commit started empty (had no changes relative to its parent to
+start with) or ended empty (all changes were already applied
+upstream in other commits).
- merge-based rebase does the same.
+The merge backend does the same.
- interactive-based rebase will by default drop commits that
- started empty and halt if it hits a commit that ended up empty.
- The `--keep-empty` option exists for interactive rebases to allow
- it to keep commits that started empty.
+The interactive backend drops commits by default that
+started empty and halts if it hits a commit that ended up empty.
+The `--keep-empty` option exists for the interactive backend to allow
+it to keep commits that started empty.
- * directory rename detection:
+Directory rename detection
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- merge-based and interactive-based rebases work fine with
- directory rename detection. am-based rebases sometimes do not.
+The merge and interactive backends work fine with
+directory rename detection. The am backend sometimes does not.
include::merge-strategies.txt[]