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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/git-merge-base.txt | 64 |
1 files changed, 56 insertions, 8 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/git-merge-base.txt b/Documentation/git-merge-base.txt index b968b64c38..502e00ec35 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-merge-base.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-merge-base.txt @@ -154,23 +154,71 @@ topic origin/master`, the history of remote-tracking branch `origin/master` may have been rewound and rebuilt, leading to a history of this shape: - o---B1 + o---B2 / - ---o---o---B2--o---o---o---B (origin/master) + ---o---o---B1--o---o---o---B (origin/master) \ - B3 + B0 \ - Derived (topic) + D0---D1---D (topic) -where `origin/master` used to point at commits B3, B2, B1 and now it +where `origin/master` used to point at commits B0, B1, B2 and now it points at B, and your `topic` branch was started on top of it back -when `origin/master` was at B3. This mode uses the reflog of -`origin/master` to find B3 as the fork point, so that the `topic` -can be rebased on top of the updated `origin/master` by: +when `origin/master` was at B0, and you built three commits, D0, D1, +and D, on top of it. Imagine that you now want to rebase the work +you did on the topic on top of the updated origin/master. + +In such a case, `git merge-base origin/master topic` would return the +parent of B0 in the above picture, but B0^..D is *not* the range of +commits you would want to replay on top of B (it includes B0, which +is not what you wrote; it is a commit the other side discarded when +it moved its tip from B0 to B1). + +`git merge-base --fork-point origin/master topic` is designed to +help in such a case. It takes not only B but also B0, B1, and B2 +(i.e. old tips of the remote-tracking branches your repository's +reflog knows about) into account to see on which commit your topic +branch was built and finds B0, allowing you to replay only the +commits on your topic, excluding the commits the other side later +discarded. + +Hence $ fork_point=$(git merge-base --fork-point origin/master topic) + +will find B0, and + $ git rebase --onto origin/master $fork_point topic +will replay D0, D1 and D on top of B to create a new history of this +shape: + + o---B2 + / + ---o---o---B1--o---o---o---B (origin/master) + \ \ + B0 D0'--D1'--D' (topic - updated) + \ + D0---D1---D (topic - old) + +A caveat is that older reflog entries in your repository may be +expired by `git gc`. If B0 no longer appears in the reflog of the +remote-tracking branch `origin/master`, the `--fork-point` mode +obviously cannot find it and fails, avoiding to give a random and +useless result (such as the parent of B0, like the same command +without the `--fork-point` option gives). + +Also, the remote-tracking branch you use the `--fork-point` mode +with must be the one your topic forked from its tip. If you forked +from an older commit than the tip, this mode would not find the fork +point (imagine in the above sample history B0 did not exist, +origin/master started at B1, moved to B2 and then B, and you forked +your topic at origin/master^ when origin/master was B1; the shape of +the history would be the same as above, without B0, and the parent +of B1 is what `git merge-base origin/master topic` correctly finds, +but the `--fork-point` mode will not, because it is not one of the +commits that used to be at the tip of origin/master). + See also -------- |