commit_list_insert(in->item, &ret);
 
        for (i = in->next; i; i = i->next) {
-               struct commit_list *new = NULL, *end = NULL;
+               struct commit_list *new_commits = NULL, *end = NULL;
 
                for (j = ret; j; j = j->next) {
                        struct commit_list *bases;
                        bases = get_merge_bases(i->item, j->item);
-                       if (!new)
-                               new = bases;
+                       if (!new_commits)
+                               new_commits = bases;
                        else
                                end->next = bases;
                        for (k = bases; k; k = k->next)
                                end = k;
                }
-               ret = new;
+               ret = new_commits;
        }
        return ret;
 }
 struct commit_list **commit_list_append(struct commit *commit,
                                        struct commit_list **next)
 {
-       struct commit_list *new = xmalloc(sizeof(struct commit_list));
-       new->item = commit;
-       *next = new;
-       new->next = NULL;
-       return &new->next;
+       struct commit_list *new_commit = xmalloc(sizeof(struct commit_list));
+       new_commit->item = commit;
+       *next = new_commit;
+       new_commit->next = NULL;
+       return &new_commit->next;
 }
 
 const char *find_commit_header(const char *msg, const char *key, size_t *out_len)