1 files changed, 15 insertions, 8 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/git-rev-list.txt b/Documentation/git-rev-list.txt
index 1c9cc28895..bf98c8449c 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-rev-list.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-rev-list.txt
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ SYNOPSIS
 	     [ \--max-age=timestamp ]
 	     [ \--min-age=timestamp ]
 	     [ \--sparse ]
+	     [ \--merges ]
 	     [ \--no-merges ]
 	     [ \--first-parent ]
 	     [ \--remove-empty ]
@@ -50,20 +51,26 @@ SYNOPSIS
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
 
-Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order starting at the
-given commit(s), taking ancestry relationship into account.  This is
-useful to produce human-readable log output.
+List commits that are reachable by following the `parent` links from the
+given commit(s), but exclude commits that are reachable from the one(s)
+given with a '{caret}' in front of them.  The output is given in reverse
+chronological order by default.
 
-Commits which are stated with a preceding '{caret}' cause listing to
-stop at that point. Their parents are implied. Thus the following
-command:
+You can think of this as a set operation.  Commits given on the command
+line form a set of commits that are reachable from any of them, and then
+commits reachable from any of the ones given with '{caret}' in front are
+subtracted from that set.  The remaining commits are what comes out in the
+command's output.  Various other options and paths parameters can be used
+to further limit the result.
+
+Thus, the following command:
 
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
 	$ git rev-list foo bar ^baz
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-means "list all the commits which are included in 'foo' and 'bar', but
-not in 'baz'".
+means "list all the commits which are reachable from 'foo' or 'bar', but
+not from 'baz'".
 
 A special notation "'<commit1>'..'<commit2>'" can be used as a
 short-hand for "{caret}'<commit1>' '<commit2>'". For example, either of