Typo in man page for git-merge
2 messages between Sep 5, 2026 and Sep 5, 2026, from Fabian Kratz, Kristoffer Haugsbakk.
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Hi, I just read the git man page git-merge and believe that I found a typo/error in an example. I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but this is the section:
Show 10 quoted lines
> Assume the following history exists and the current branch is "master":
>
> A---B---C topic
> /
> D---E---F---G master
>
> Then "git merge topic" will replay the changes made on the topic branch since it diverged from master (i.e.,
> E) until its current commit (C) on top of master, and record the result in a new commit along with the names
> of the two parent commits and a log message from the user describing the changes. Before the operation,
> ORIG_HEAD is set to the tip of the current branch (C).
I believe ORIG_HEAD is actually set to G here, not C. My own experiments support this and it's what I would expect after reading the explanation.
Re: Typo in man page for git-merge
Hi Fabian
On Sat, Sep 5, 2026, at 18:29, Fabian Kratz wrote:
Show 18 quoted lines
> Hi, I just read the git man page git-merge and believe that I found a
> typo/error in an example. I don't know if this is the right place to
> post this, but this is the section:
>
>> Assume the following history exists and the current branch is "master":
>>
>> A---B---C topic
>> /
>> D---E---F---G master
>>
>> Then "git merge topic" will replay the changes made on the topic branch since it diverged from master (i.e.,
>> E) until its current commit (C) on top of master, and record the result in a new commit along with the names
>> of the two parent commits and a log message from the user describing the changes. Before the operation,
>> ORIG_HEAD is set to the tip of the current branch (C).
>
> I believe ORIG_HEAD is actually set to G here, not C. My own
> experiments support this and it's what I would expect after reading the
> explanation.
This was fixed in Git 2.51.0. Specifically in 953049ee (docs: correct ORIG_HEAD example in "git merge" documentation, 2025-07-05).