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authorbrian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>2013-12-08 20:40:27 +0000
committerJunio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>2013-12-09 13:42:40 -0800
commitc5665000327388832fa8be0b3bf17669f672481b (patch)
tree74d9679a67a1fa97228c822be2bb5a82f099368d /Documentation/merge-strategies.txt
parent2f93541d88fadd1ff5307d81c2c8921ee3eea058 (diff)
downloadgit-c5665000327388832fa8be0b3bf17669f672481b.tar.gz
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Documentation: document pitfalls with 3-way merge
Oftentimes people will make the same change in two branches, revert the change in one branch, and then be surprised when a merge reinstitutes that change when the branches are merged. Add an explanatory paragraph that explains that this occurs and the reason why, so people are not surprised. Signed-off-by: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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diff --git a/Documentation/merge-strategies.txt b/Documentation/merge-strategies.txt
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@@ -113,3 +113,11 @@ subtree::
match the tree structure of A, instead of reading the trees at
the same level. This adjustment is also done to the common
ancestor tree.
+
+With the strategies that use 3-way merge (including the default, 'recursive'),
+if a change is made on both branches, but later reverted on one of the
+branches, that change will be present in the merged result; some people find
+this behavior confusing. It occurs because only the heads and the merge base
+are considered when performing a merge, not the individual commits. The merge
+algorithm therefore considers the reverted change as no change at all, and
+substitutes the changed version instead.