"checkout A...B" switches to the merge base between A and B

When flipping commits around on topic branches, I often end up doing
this sequence:

 * Run "log --oneline next..jc/frotz" to find out the first commit
   on 'jc/frotz' branch not yet merged to 'next';

 * Run "checkout $that_commit^" to detach HEAD to the parent of it;

 * Rebuild the series on top of that commit; and

 * "show-branch jc/frotz HEAD" and "diff jc/frotz HEAD" to verify.

Introduce a new syntax to "git checkout" to name the commit to switch to,
to make the first two steps easier.  When the branch to switch to is
specified as A...B (you can omit either A or B but not both, and HEAD
is used instead of the omitted side), the merge base between these two
commits are computed, and if there is one unique one, we detach the HEAD
at that commit.

With this, I can say "checkout next...jc/frotz".

Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

1 files changed, 26 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/t/t2012-checkout-last.sh b/t/t2012-checkout-last.sh
index 87b30a2..b44de9d 100755
--- a/t/t2012-checkout-last.sh
+++ b/t/t2012-checkout-last.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-test_description='checkout can switch to last branch'
+test_description='checkout can switch to last branch and merge base'
 
 . ./test-lib.sh
 
@@ -91,4 +91,29 @@ test_expect_success 'switch to twelfth from the last' '
 	test "z$(git symbolic-ref HEAD)" = "zrefs/heads/branch13"
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'merge base test setup' '
+	git checkout -b another other &&
+	echo "hello again" >>world &&
+	git add world &&
+	git commit -m third
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'another...master' '
+	git checkout another &&
+	git checkout another...master &&
+	test "z$(git rev-parse --verify HEAD)" = "z$(git rev-parse --verify master^)"
+'
+
+test_expect_success '...master' '
+	git checkout another &&
+	git checkout ...master &&
+	test "z$(git rev-parse --verify HEAD)" = "z$(git rev-parse --verify master^)"
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'master...' '
+	git checkout another &&
+	git checkout master... &&
+	test "z$(git rev-parse --verify HEAD)" = "z$(git rev-parse --verify master^)"
+'
+
 test_done