We explain the user why uncommited changes can be problematic with merge,
and point to "commit" and "stash" for the solution.
Signed-off-by: Matthieu Moy <redacted>
---
Documentation/user-manual.txt | 14 +++++++++++---
1 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/user-manual.txt b/Documentation/user-manual.txt
index 269ec47..6b4a037 100644
--- a/Documentation/user-manual.txt
+++ b/Documentation/user-manual.txt
@@ -1176,14 +1176,22 @@ How to merge
------------
You can rejoin two diverging branches of development using
-linkgit:git-merge[1]:
+linkgit:git-merge[1].
-------------------------------------------------
$ git merge branchname
-------------------------------------------------
merges the development in the branch "branchname" into the current
-branch. If there are conflicts--for example, if the same file is
+branch. Note that Git merges committed changes, but not the working
+tree itself. Therefore, if you have uncommitted changes touching the
+same files as the ones impacted by the merge, Git will refuse to
+proceed. Most of the time, you will want to commit your changes before
+you can merge, and if you don't, then linkgit:git-stash[1] can take
+these changes away while you're doing the merge, and reapply them
+afterwards.
+
+If there are conflicts--for example, if the same file is
modified in two different ways in the remote branch and the local
branch--then you are warned; the output may look something like this:
@@ -1679,7 +1687,7 @@ Sharing development with others
Getting updates with git pull
-----------------------------
-After you clone a repository and make a few changes of your own, you
+After you clone a repository and commit a few changes of your own, you
may wish to check the original repository for updates and merge them
into your own work.
--
1.6.5.3.435.g5f2e3.dirty