From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2026 23:11:44 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] revision: add --maximal-only option
Message-ID: <xmqqwm19jl8v.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <7daff220-f93a-463a-b586-dd876b51edae@gmail.com>

Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com> writes:

> The merge-base --independent calculation is basically asking for
> the maximal set among commits in the intersection of two (or more)
> commit histories. One trick the merge-base calculation does is
> that it first looks for the --boundary commits, and then reduces
> from within that set. This avoid walking further into the history
> than necessary.
> ...
> And this would likely return the tips of the two branches, but
> also will detect if one already reaches the other or if one of
> 'main' or 'release' reaches one or both of them, excluding it
> from the maximal set.

Thanks for your thoughts.