SYNOPSIS
--------
[verse]
- 'git merge-base' [-a|--all] [--octopus] <commit> <commit>...
+ 'git merge-base' [-a|--all] <commit> <commit>...
+ 'git merge-base' [-a|--all] --octopus <commit>...
'git merge-base' --independent <commit>...
DESCRIPTION
ancestor', i.e. a 'merge base'. Note that there can be more than one
merge base for a pair of commits.
- Unless `--octopus` is given, among the two commits to compute the merge
- base from, one is specified by the first commit argument on the command
- line; the other commit is a (possibly hypothetical) commit that is a merge
- across all the remaining commits on the command line. As the most common
- special case, specifying only two commits on the command line means
- computing the merge base between the given two commits.
+ OPERATION MODE
+ --------------
+
+ As the most common special case, specifying only two commits on the
+ command line means computing the merge base between the given two commits.
+
+ More generally, among the two commits to compute the merge base from,
+ one is specified by the first commit argument on the command line;
+ the other commit is a (possibly hypothetical) commit that is a merge
+ across all the remaining commits on the command line.
As a consequence, the 'merge base' is not necessarily contained in each of the
commit arguments if more than two commits are specified. This is different
from linkgit:git-show-branch[1] when used with the `--merge-base` option.
- OPTIONS
- -------
- -a::
- --all::
- Output all merge bases for the commits, instead of just one.
-
--octopus::
Compute the best common ancestors of all supplied commits,
in preparation for an n-way merge. This mimics the behavior
from any other. This mimics the behavior of 'git show-branch
--independent'.
+ OPTIONS
+ -------
+ -a::
+ --all::
+ Output all merge bases for the commits, instead of just one.
+
DISCUSSION
----------
common ancestor between 'A' and 'M', but '1' is a better common ancestor,
because '2' is an ancestor of '1'. Hence, '2' is not a merge base.
+ The result of `git merge-base --octopus A B C` is '2', because '2' is
+ the best common ancestor of all commits.
+
When the history involves criss-cross merges, there can be more than one
'best' common ancestor for two commits. For example, with this topology:
the other (both are 'best' merge bases). When the `--all` option is not given,
it is unspecified which best one is output.
-Author
-------
-Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
-
-Documentation
---------------
-Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
-
See also
--------
linkgit:git-rev-list[1],