Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] writes:
Possible user errors I can think of are:
- If 'topic' is not a local branch, the result will be on a detached
HEAD, as you are starting from a detached HEAD (i.e. 'topic' could be a
tag);
- Until you resolved and said "rebase --continue" (or --skip) to allow it
to conclude the rebase when the operation conflicted, you would be on a
detached HEAD.
Just to clarify, these things are _not_ errors at all. What I meant by
"user error" was to notice that the HEAD is detached in these cases (which
is not an error) and panicking (which is). Both of these are normal
procedures and sane states.