From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mon, 16 May 2011 23:38:46 +0000 (-0700)
Subject: Merge branch 'vr/merge-base-doc' into maint
X-Git-Tag: v1.7.5.2~5
X-Git-Url: https://git.lorimer.id.au/gitweb.git/diff_plain/8de43386505b503e25788f75f89802495828e6c0?ds=inline;hp=-c

Merge branch 'vr/merge-base-doc' into maint

* vr/merge-base-doc:
Restructure documentation for git-merge-base.
Documentation: update to git-merge-base --octopus
---

8de43386505b503e25788f75f89802495828e6c0
diff --combined Documentation/git-merge-base.txt
index ba36ec04f4,3fe510f85c..b295bf8330
--- a/Documentation/git-merge-base.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-merge-base.txt
@@@ -9,7 -9,8 +9,8 @@@ git-merge-base - Find as good common an
  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
@@@ -22,23 -23,21 +23,21 @@@ that does not have any better common an
  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
@@@ -51,6 -50,12 +50,12 @@@
  	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
  ----------
  
@@@ -89,6 -94,9 +94,9 @@@ and the result of `git merge-base A M` 
  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:
  
@@@ -102,6 -110,14 +110,6 @@@ both '1' and '2' are merge-bases of A a
  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],