Re: [PATCH v2] git-rebase.txt: clarify that --abort checks out <branch>

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jul 8, 2011, 16:07 UTC
Message-ID: <7vzkkog3ia.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <1310092069-19708-1-git-send-email-martin.von.zweigbergk@gmail.com>

Martin von Zweigbergk <martin.von.zweigbergk@gmail.com> writes:

Show 13 quoted lines

> The description for 'git rebase --abort' currently says:
>
>     Restore the original branch and abort the rebase operation.
>
> The "restore" can be misinterpreted to imply that the original branch
> was somehow in a broken state during the rebase operation. It is also
> not completely clear what "the original branch" is --- is it the
> branch that was checked out before the rebase operation was called or
> is the the branch that is being rebased (it is the latter)? Although
> both issues are made clear in the DESCRIPTION section, let us also
> make the entry in the OPTIONS secion more clear.
>
> Signed-off-by: Martin von Zweigbergk <martin.von.zweigbergk@gmail.com>

While I agree that there is a problem, ...

Show 18 quoted lines

>  Documentation/git-rebase.txt |    6 +++++-
>  git-rebase.sh                |    2 +-
>  2 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/Documentation/git-rebase.txt b/Documentation/git-rebase.txt
> index a9e0e50..d2f2cd9 100644
> --- a/Documentation/git-rebase.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/git-rebase.txt
> @@ -232,7 +232,11 @@ leave out at most one of A and B, in which case it defaults to HEAD.
>  	Restart the rebasing process after having resolved a merge conflict.
>  
>  --abort::
> -	Restore the original branch and abort the rebase operation.
> +	Abort the rebase operation and reset HEAD to the original
> +	branch. If <branch> was provided when the rebase operation was
> +	started, then HEAD will be reset to <branch>. Otherwise HEAD
> +	will be reset to where it was when the rebase operation was
> +	started.

and I think this is a vast improvement, ...

Show 14 quoted lines

>  --skip::
>  	Restart the rebasing process by skipping the current patch.
> diff --git a/git-rebase.sh b/git-rebase.sh
> index d7855ea..f2d4c72 100755
> --- a/git-rebase.sh
> +++ b/git-rebase.sh
> @@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ ignore-whitespace! passed to 'git apply'
>  C=!                passed to 'git apply'
>   Actions:
>  continue!          continue rebasing process
> -abort!             abort rebasing process and restore original branch
> +abort!             abort rebasing process and reset HEAD to <branch>
>  skip!              skip current patch and continue rebasing process
>  "

I don't think it is quite right to use placeholder notation here, unless you are talking about "git rebase --abort <branch>", and you are of course not in this case. Perhaps

	abort and check out the original branch

might be slightly better. I dunno.

As the user knows these help text are all about "rebase", I do not think it is worth repeating "rebasing process" over and over again.