Re: Question about git log --merge option

Andrey Hsiao [off-list ref] writes:

Dear list:

Just encountered the --merge option for git log.

In the man page, it has the following explanation:
- After a failed merge, show refs that touch files having a conflict
and don't exist on all heads to merge.

	git log --merge [options] -- $paths

is roughly the same as

	git log [options] HEAD...MERGE_HEAD -- $paths'

where $paths' is $paths limited to those with conflicts.  You can
further think of that as a rough equivalent of

	git log [options] ^X HEAD MERGE_HEAD -- $paths'

where X is the merge base between the tips of these two branches:

    X---o---o---o---H
     \
      o---o---o---M

And the commits among these ('o's, H and M in the picture), the ones
that change any of the $paths' are shown.  If you further limit the
output (e.g. with -n<n>, or --since=<time>), you may not see all of
them, of course.

Thanks Junio, I understand the option's meaning now :)

On Thu, Apr 14, 2016 at 4:37 AM, Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] wrote:

Andrey Hsiao [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

Dear list:

Just encountered the --merge option for git log.

In the man page, it has the following explanation:
- After a failed merge, show refs that touch files having a conflict
and don't exist on all heads to merge.

        git log --merge [options] -- $paths

is roughly the same as

        git log [options] HEAD...MERGE_HEAD -- $paths'

where $paths' is $paths limited to those with conflicts.  You can
further think of that as a rough equivalent of

        git log [options] ^X HEAD MERGE_HEAD -- $paths'

where X is the merge base between the tips of these two branches:

    X---o---o---o---H
     \
      o---o---o---M

And the commits among these ('o's, H and M in the picture), the ones
that change any of the $paths' are shown.  If you further limit the
output (e.g. with -n<n>, or --since=<time>), you may not see all of
them, of course.