3 files changed, 21 insertions, 12 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/config/diff.txt b/Documentation/config/diff.txt
index 2d3331f55c..32f84838ac 100644
--- a/Documentation/config/diff.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config/diff.txt
@@ -118,9 +118,10 @@ diff.orderFile::
 	relative to the top of the working tree.
 
 diff.renameLimit::
-	The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename
-	detection; equivalent to the 'git diff' option `-l`. This setting
-	has no effect if rename detection is turned off.
+	The number of files to consider in the exhaustive portion of
+	copy/rename detection; equivalent to the 'git diff' option
+	`-l`.  If not set, the default value is currently 1000.  This
+	setting has no effect if rename detection is turned off.
 
 diff.renames::
 	Whether and how Git detects renames.  If set to "false",
diff --git a/Documentation/config/merge.txt b/Documentation/config/merge.txt
index 6b66c83eab..e27cc63944 100644
--- a/Documentation/config/merge.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config/merge.txt
@@ -33,10 +33,12 @@ merge.verifySignatures::
 include::fmt-merge-msg.txt[]
 
 merge.renameLimit::
-	The number of files to consider when performing rename detection
-	during a merge; if not specified, defaults to the value of
-	diff.renameLimit. This setting has no effect if rename detection
-	is turned off.
+	The number of files to consider in the exhaustive portion of
+	rename detection during a merge.  If not specified, defaults
+	to the value of diff.renameLimit.  If neither
+	merge.renameLimit nor diff.renameLimit are specified,
+	currently defaults to 7000.  This setting has no effect if
+	rename detection is turned off.
 
 merge.renames::
 	Whether Git detects renames.  If set to "false", rename detection
diff --git a/Documentation/diff-options.txt b/Documentation/diff-options.txt
index 32e6dee5ac..0aebe83205 100644
--- a/Documentation/diff-options.txt
+++ b/Documentation/diff-options.txt
@@ -588,11 +588,17 @@ When used together with `-B`, omit also the preimage in the deletion part
 of a delete/create pair.
 
 -l<num>::
-	The `-M` and `-C` options require O(n^2) processing time where n
-	is the number of potential rename/copy targets.  This
-	option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
-	the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
-	number.
+	The `-M` and `-C` options involve some preliminary steps that
+	can detect subsets of renames/copies cheaply, followed by an
+	exhaustive fallback portion that compares all remaining
+	unpaired destinations to all relevant sources.  (For renames,
+	only remaining unpaired sources are relevant; for copies, all
+	original sources are relevant.)  For N sources and
+	destinations, this exhaustive check is O(N^2).  This option
+	prevents the exhaustive portion of rename/copy detection from
+	running if the number of source/destination files involved
+	exceeds the specified number.  Defaults to diff.renameLimit.
+	Note that a value of 0 is treated as unlimited.
 
 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 --diff-filter=[(A|C|D|M|R|T|U|X|B)...[*]]::