# Re: git merge vs git commit 1 messages from 2008-09-10 to 2008-09-10. Participants: Ulrik Sverdrup. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/15477 ## Ulrik Sverdrup, 2008-09-10 17:42 Subject: Re: git merge vs git commit Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/a1b6cb1b0809101042x2d097524q7b95d4164141a443%40mail.gmail.com ``` Matthieu Moy : > >>Russell King writes: >> >> Hi, >> >> Using git 1.5.4.5, I notice that the result from git merge and git commit >> are different in an unexpected way. >> >> Take the following tree: >> >> B---C---D---E2 >> / >> -A1 >> \ >> F---G---H---I3 >> >> (letters represent commits, numbers represent where the references are). >> >> Your current head is '1', and you want to merge branches '2' and '3', so >> you use: >> >> git merge 2 3 > >AAUI, "git merge 2 3" doesn't mean "merge 2 and 3 together", but >"merge 2 and 3 with the current HEAD". So, what you wanted was : > >git checkout 1 >git merge 2 > >And what you did was an octopus merge of A, E and I (which ends up >being the same since A is anyway the common ancestor of E and I). > >Now, this doesn't explain why the conflicted merge gives a result >different from the other. > (I'm not on the list, please CC) Reading the whole thread I think we have an explanation: octupus-merge learned to remove reduntant parents and does so in the clean merge case, but merge in general does not it; this is what happens in the conflict case. However it remains that three parents are to be expected with the given user action Ulrik Sverdrup ```