[PATCH 7/7] fast-forward: add help about merge vs. rebase
From: Felipe Contreras <hidden>
Date: 2021-07-22 00:09:15
Subsystem:
documentation, the rest · Maintainers:
Jonathan Corbet, Linus Torvalds
Now that we have a locus for merge versus rebase documentation, we can refer to it on the diverging advice. Signed-off-by: Felipe Contreras <redacted> --- Documentation/git-fast-forward.txt | 48 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ advice.c | 4 ++- 2 files changed, 51 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/git-fast-forward.txt b/Documentation/git-fast-forward.txt
index 38c920964f..1989fdec4a 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-fast-forward.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-fast-forward.txt@@ -50,6 +50,54 @@ synchronize the two branches. THIS COMMAND IS EXPERIMENTAL. THE BEHAVIOUR MAY CHANGE. +MERGE OR REBASE +--------------- + +The decision to whether merge or rebase depends on the situation and the +project. Traditionally git has prefered merge over rebase, but that creates a +new commit, and that's frowned up on some projects, so you can't just simply +choose to merge blindly. + +------------ + D---C---B---A origin/master + \ + X---Y master +------------ + +The nature of distributed version control systems make this divergence +unavoidable; you must decide how to synchronize this divergence. + +Should you choose to merge, the two heads (master and origin/master) will be joined +together in a new commit: + +------------ + origin/master + | + v + D---C---B---A---M master + \ / + X---Y---+ +------------ + +This new commit is called a "merge commit" and has two parents (A and Y). + +Rebasing on the other hand rewrites the history: + +------------ + origin/master + | + v + D---C---B---A---X'---Y' master +------------ + +The commits that diverged (X and Y) are rewritten as if they were created on top +of the new base (A). This creates a linear history, which is cleaner, but some +people prefer to preserve the original hsitory. + +In both cases it's likely you would have to resolve conflicts, the difference is +that in a merge you would have to do it all at once in one commit, while with a +rebase you would have to do it on every rewritten commit. + SEE ALSO -------- linkgit:git-merge[1], linkgit:git-rebase[1]
diff --git a/advice.c b/advice.c
index 60de7fbc4e..7f422b05d3 100644
--- a/advice.c
+++ b/advice.c@@ -337,5 +337,7 @@ void diverging_advice(void) "\n" "or:\n" "\n" - "\tgit rebase\n")); + "\tgit rebase\n" + "\n" + "For more information check \"git help fast-forward\".\n")); }
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2.32.0.40.gb9b36f9b52