# [PATCH] Attempt to improve git-rebase lead-in description. 3 messages from 2007-02-17 to 2007-02-18. Participants: Shawn O. Pearce, Jakub Narebski. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/6855 ## Shawn O. Pearce, 2007-02-17 09:31 Subject: [PATCH] Attempt to improve git-rebase lead-in description. Message-ID: <20070217093150.GA25871@spearce.org> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20070217093150.GA25871%40spearce.org ``` It was mentioned on #git this morning that the lead-in description of git-rebase is very confusing. Too many branch this and branch that in a very short run of text. This new description attempts to walk the user through the command syntax, while also describing exactly what git-rebase is doing to their repository. Signed-off-by: Shawn O. Pearce --- Documentation/git-rebase.txt | 22 ++++++++++++++-------- 1 files changed, 14 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/git-rebase.txt b/Documentation/git-rebase.txt index f2ef1f7..a66b2d7 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-rebase.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-rebase.txt @@ -13,11 +13,20 @@ SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION ----------- -git-rebase replaces with a new branch of the same name. When -the --onto option is provided the new branch starts out with a HEAD equal -to , otherwise it is equal to . It then attempts to -create a new commit for each commit from the original that does -not exist in the branch. +If is specified, git-rebase will perform an automatic +`git checkout ` before doing anything else. Otherwise +it remains on the current branch. + +All changes made by commits in the current branch but that are not +in are saved to a temporary area. This is the same set +of commits that would be shown by `git log ..HEAD`. + +The current branch is reset to , or if the +--onto option was supplied. This has the exact same effect as +`git reset --hard ` (or ). + +The commits that were previously saved into the temporary area are +then reapplied to the current branch, one by one, in order. It is possible that a merge failure will prevent this process from being completely automatic. You will have to resolve any such merge failure @@ -26,9 +35,6 @@ that caused the merge failure with `git rebase --skip`. To restore the original and remove the .dotest working files, use the command `git rebase --abort` instead. -Note that if is not specified on the command line, the currently -checked out branch is used. - Assume the following history exists and the current branch is "topic": ------------ -- 1.5.0.552.ge1b1c ``` ## Jakub Narebski, 2007-02-18 02:21 Subject: Re: [PATCH] Attempt to improve git-rebase lead-in description. Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/er8d34%24ssm%241%40sea.gmane.org In-Reply-To: <20070217093150.GA25871@spearce.org> ``` Shawn O. Pearce wrote: > + > +The commits that were previously saved into the temporary area are > +then reapplied to the current branch, one by one, in order. Which is true for git-format-patch/git-am --3way driven "git rebase", but not for git-merge driven "git rebase --merge". The description is certainly more user-friendly, but I'd rather it avoid mentioning saving to temporary area. -- Jakub Narebski Warsaw, Poland ShadeHawk on #git ``` ## Shawn O. Pearce, 2007-02-18 06:31 Subject: Re: [PATCH] Attempt to improve git-rebase lead-in description. Message-ID: <20070218063124.GA31350@spearce.org> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20070218063124.GA31350%40spearce.org In-Reply-To: ``` Jakub Narebski wrote: > Shawn O. Pearce wrote: > > + > > +The commits that were previously saved into the temporary area are > > +then reapplied to the current branch, one by one, in order. > > Which is true for git-format-patch/git-am --3way driven "git rebase", > but not for git-merge driven "git rebase --merge". > > The description is certainly more user-friendly, but I'd rather it avoid > mentioning saving to temporary area. [note: Jakub broke this thread and sent the message twice, once to me privately and again to the list. I originally accidentally replied to Jakub's privately sent copy.] Uhhh... go read the source for `git-rebase -m`. We still put the commits into a temporary area (.git/.dotest-merge), except we store just their SHA-1 and message rather than the patch. Its still a temporary area. Even if we did not store the commits in a temporary area, they still are conceptually, as the ODB is storing them, and they aren't connected to a ref anymore, as the ref was reset. My description is accurate, in either mode. -- Shawn. ```