UI, Workflows & Features
+ * Instead of typing four capital letters "HEAD", you can say "@" now,
+ e.g. "git log @".
+
+ * "git check-ignore" follows the same rule as "git add" and "git
+ status" in that the ignore/exclude mechanism does not take effect
+ on paths that are already tracked. With "--no-index" option, it
+ can be used to diagnose which paths that should have been ignored
+ have been mistakenly added to the index.
+
+ * Some irrelevant "advice" messages that are shared with "git status"
+ output have been removed from the commit log template.
+
+ * "update-refs" learnt a "--stdin" option to read multiple update
+ requests and perform them in an all-or-none fashion.
+
+ * Just like "make -C <directory>", "git -C <directory> ..." tells Git
+ to go there before doing anything else.
+
+ * Just like "git checkout -" knows to check out and "git merge -"
+ knows to merge the branch you were previously on, "git cherry-pick"
+ now understands "git cherry-pick -" to pick from the previous
+ branch.
+
+ * "git status" now omits the prefix to make its output a comment in a
+ commit log editor, which is not necessary for human consumption.
+ Scripts that parse the output of "git status" are advised to use
+ "git status --porcelain" instead, as its format is stable and easier
+ to parse.
+
+ * Make "foo^{tag}" to peel a tag to itself, i.e. no-op., and fail if
+ "foo" is not a tag. "git rev-parse --verify v1.0^{tag}" would be
+ a more convenient way to say "test $(git cat-file -t v1.0) = tag".
+
+ * "git branch -v -v" (and "git status") did not distinguish among a
+ branch that does not build on any other branch, a branch that is in
+ sync with the branch it builds on, and a branch that is configured
+ to build on some other branch that no longer exists.
+
* A packfile that stores the same object more than once is broken and
will be rejected by "git index-pack" that is run when receiving
data over the wire.
track are contained in this release (see release notes to them for
details).
+ * When running "fetch -q", a long silence while the sender side
+ computes the set of objects to send can be mistaken by proxies as
+ dropped connection. The server side has been taught to send a
+ small empty messages to keep the connection alive.
+ (merge 115dedd jk/upload-pack-keepalive later to maint).
+
+ * "git rebase" had a portability regression in v1.8.4 to trigger a
+ bug in some BSD shell implementations.
+ (merge 99855dd mm/rebase-continue-freebsd-WB later to maint).
+
+ * "git branch --track" had a minor regression in v1.8.3.2 and later
+ that made it impossible to base your local work on anything but a
+ local branch of the upstream repository you are tracking from.
+ (merge b0f49ff jh/checkout-auto-tracking later to maint).
+
+ * When the webserver responds with "405 Method Not Allowed", "git
+ http-backend" should tell the client what methods are allowed with
+ the "Allow" header.
+ (merge 9247be0 bc/http-backend-allow-405 later to maint).
+
+ * When there is no sufficient overlap between old and new history
+ during a "git fetch" into a shallow repository, objects that the
+ sending side knows the receiving end has were unnecessarily sent.
+ (merge f21d2a7 nd/fetch-into-shallow later to maint).
+
* "git cvsserver" computed the permission mode bits incorrectly for
executable files.
(merge 1b48d56 jc/cvsserver-perm-bit-fix later to maint).