[PATCH 04/10] merge-strategies.txt: update wording for the resolve strategy

From: Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget <gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
Date: Aug 3, 2021, 15:35 UTC
Message-ID: <3989f194ba91e64852285064b652979861445c03.1628004920.git.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <pull.1059.git.git.1628004920.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>

From: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>

The resolve merge strategy was given prominent positioning in this document, being listed first since it was the default at the time the document was written. It hasn't been the default since before Git v1.0 was released, though. Move it later in the document, near `octopus` and `ours`.

Further, the wording for "resolve" claimed that it was "considered generally safe and fast", which implies that the other strategies are not. While such an implication may have been true in 2005 when written, it may well be that `ort` is faster today (since it does not need to recurse into all directories). Also, since `resolve` was the default for less than a year while `recursive` has been the default for a decade and a half, I think `recursive` is more battle-tested than `resolve` is. Just strike this extraneous phrase.

Also, provide some quick historical context that may help users understand its purpose and place in the list of merge strategies.

Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/merge-strategies.txt | 14 +++++++-------
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/merge-strategies.txt b/Documentation/merge-strategies.txt
index 5d707e952aa..6b6017e1cc8 100644
--- a/Documentation/merge-strategies.txt
+++ b/Documentation/merge-strategies.txt
@@ -6,13 +6,6 @@ backend 'merge strategies' to be chosen with `-s` option.  Some strategies
 can also take their own options, which can be passed by giving `-X<option>`
 arguments to `git merge` and/or `git pull`.
 
-resolve::
-	This can only resolve two heads (i.e. the current branch
-	and another branch you pulled from) using a 3-way merge
-	algorithm.  It tries to carefully detect criss-cross
-	merge ambiguities and is considered generally safe and
-	fast.
-
 recursive::
 	This can only resolve two heads using a 3-way merge
 	algorithm.  When there is more than one common
@@ -106,6 +99,13 @@ subtree[=<path>];;
 	is prefixed (or stripped from the beginning) to make the shape of
 	two trees to match.
 
+resolve::
+	This can only resolve two heads (i.e. the current branch
+	and another branch you pulled from) using a 3-way merge
+	algorithm.  It tries to carefully detect criss-cross
+	merge ambiguities.  It cannot handle renames.  This was
+	the default merge algorithm prior to November 2005.
+
 octopus::
 	This resolves cases with more than two heads, but refuses to do
 	a complex merge that needs manual resolution.  It is

-- 
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