Re: [PATCH 4/6] Documentation/git-merge.txt: improve short description in NAME

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Oct 5, 2016, 17:55 UTC
Message-ID: <20161005175512.aruzndaow3g2jmt7@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <a33dd3ec3da0dc2dad72ed85edd29ff01f898831.1475678515.git.sorganov@gmail.com>

On Wed, Oct 05, 2016 at 05:46:22PM +0300, sorganov@gmail.com wrote:

Show 11 quoted lines

> diff --git a/Documentation/git-merge.txt b/Documentation/git-merge.txt
> index 216d2f4..cc0329d 100644
> --- a/Documentation/git-merge.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/git-merge.txt
> @@ -3,7 +3,8 @@ git-merge(1)
>  
>  NAME
>  ----
> -git-merge - Join two or more development histories together
> +
> +git-merge - Merge one or more branches to the current branch

I wonder if we should be more clear that you don't have to merge a branch; you can merge any commit. I do agree that the original was unnecessarily general. And I think "the current branch" is accurate (technically it can be to a detached HEAD, but that is pedantry that doesn't need to make it into the synopsis).

So maybe "Merge one or more commits into the current branch". I guess that is a bit vague, too. It is really "commit tips" or "lines of development" that we are merging. Bringing them in of course brings in many commits, but the "or more" there is meant to hint at multi-parent merges.

So perhaps "one or more branches", while not completely accurate, is the best we can do. I dunno.

-Peff