From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2016 20:37:21 GMT
Subject: Re: Question about git log --merge option
Message-ID: <xmqqvb3ljldq.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAArk4YMOkd3dEn-09-LMO7zf=X3iJqXUjCS0YNN5v4h=PjrTLg@mail.gmail.com>

Andrey Hsiao <andreyhsiao@gmail.com> writes:

> Dear list:
>
> Just encountered the --merge option for git log.
>
> In the man page, it has the following explanation:
> - After a failed merge, show refs that touch files having a conflict
> and don't exist on all heads to merge.

	git log --merge [options] -- $paths

is roughly the same as

	git log [options] HEAD...MERGE_HEAD -- $paths'

where $paths' is $paths limited to those with conflicts.  You can
further think of that as a rough equivalent of

	git log [options] ^X HEAD MERGE_HEAD -- $paths'

where X is the merge base between the tips of these two branches:

    X---o---o---o---H
     \
      o---o---o---M

And the commits among these ('o's, H and M in the picture), the ones
that change any of the $paths' are shown.  If you further limit the
output (e.g. with -n<n>, or --since=<time>), you may not see all of
them, of course.