Thanks to you and everyone else for useful input. Some of this input
ended up in the documentation. I will provide an updated patch
tomorrow. I expect to have a final patch for submission some time
next week.
I have added some more documentation:
diff --git a/Documentation/git-merge.txt b/Documentation/git-merge.txt
index 2af33d8..5af5436 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-merge.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-merge.txt
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ include::merge-options.txt[]
<remote>::
Other branch head merged into our branch. You need at
least one <remote>. Specifying more than one <remote>
- obviously means you are trying an Octopus.
+ usually means you are trying an Octopus.
include::fast-forward-options.txt[]
@@ -133,6 +133,47 @@ merge (which is typically a fraction of the whole
tree), you can
have local modifications in your working tree as long as they do
not overlap with what the merge updates.
+If more than one commit are specified for the merge, git will try to
+reduce the number of commits (real parents) by eliminating commits
+than can be reached from other commits. The commit message will
+reflect the actual commits specified but the merge strategy will be
+selected based on the real parents always including `HEAD`. The real
+parents (only including `HEAD` if it is real) are the parents recorded
+in the merge commit object.
+
+The following shows master and three topic branches. TopicB is based
+on TopicA, TopicA is previously branched off from master, and TopicC
+is based on the current `HEAD` of master:
+
+------------
+ o---o---o TopicB
+ /
+ o---o---o TopicA
+ /
+ o---o---o---o---o---o master
+ \
+ o---o TopicC
+------------
+
+A merger of master with TopicA, TopicB, and TopicC will select the
+merge strategy based on the three branches master, TopicB, and TopicC
+(TopicA is eliminated since it can be reached from TopicB). TopicB
+and TopicC are the only real parents and are therefore the only
+parents recorded in the merge commit object:
+
+------------
+ % git co master
+ % git merge TopicA TopicB TopicC
+
+ o---o---o TopicB
+ / \
+ o---o---o TopicA \
+ / \
+ o---o---o---o---o---o o master
+ \ /
+ o---o TopicC
+------------
+
When there are conflicts, these things happen:
1. `HEAD` stays the same.
On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 8:27 AM, Jakub Narebski <jnareb@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I'd mention here receive.denyNonFastForward option as a way to set
> this globally for all branches, for public bare publishing
> repositories; AFAIK for push and I think also for fetch.
The denyNonFastForward option have nothing to do with merges. It only
applies to push on the server side. A merge is not involved when
doing a push.
--
Sverre Hvammen Johansen
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