From 983f464fcbab700a2cac6011fa6941dab839548d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Elijah Newren Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2018 00:23:15 -0700 Subject: git-rebase.txt: address confusion between --no-ff vs --force-rebase rebase was taught the --force-rebase option in commit b2f82e05de ("Teach rebase to rebase even if upstream is up to date", 2009-02-13). This flag worked for the am and merge backends, but wasn't a valid option for the interactive backend. rebase was taught the --no-ff option for interactive rebases in commit b499549401cb ("Teach rebase the --no-ff option.", 2010-03-24), to do the exact same thing as --force-rebase does for non-interactive rebases. This commit explicitly documented the fact that --force-rebase was incompatible with --interactive, though it made --no-ff a synonym for --force-rebase for non-interactive rebases. The choice of a new option was based on the fact that "force rebase" didn't sound like an appropriate term for the interactive machinery. In commit 6bb4e485cff8 ("rebase: align variable names", 2011-02-06), the separate parsing of command line options in the different rebase scripts was removed, and whether on accident or because the author noticed that these options did the same thing, the options became synonyms and both were accepted by all three rebase types. In commit 2d26d533a012 ("Documentation/git-rebase.txt: -f forces a rebase that would otherwise be a no-op", 2014-08-12), which reworded the description of the --force-rebase option, the (no-longer correct) sentence stating that --force-rebase was incompatible with --interactive was finally removed. Finally, as explained at https://public-inbox.org/git/98279912-0f52-969d-44a6-22242039387f@xiplink.com In the original discussion around this option [1], at one point I proposed teaching rebase--interactive to respect --force-rebase instead of adding a new option [2]. Ultimately --no-ff was chosen as the better user interface design [3], because an interactive rebase can't be "forced" to run. We have accepted both --no-ff and --force-rebase as full synonyms for all three rebase types for over seven years. Documenting them differently and in ways that suggest they might not be quite synonyms simply leads to confusion. Adjust the documentation to match reality. Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano diff --git a/Documentation/git-rebase.txt b/Documentation/git-rebase.txt index b2d95e3..2f47495 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-rebase.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-rebase.txt @@ -337,16 +337,18 @@ See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below. + See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below. --f:: +--no-ff:: --force-rebase:: - Force a rebase even if the current branch is up to date and - the command without `--force` would return without doing anything. +-f:: + Individually replay all rebased commits instead of fast-forwarding + over the unchanged ones. This ensures that the entire history of + the rebased branch is composed of new commits. + -You may find this (or --no-ff with an interactive rebase) helpful after -reverting a topic branch merge, as this option recreates the topic branch with -fresh commits so it can be remerged successfully without needing to "revert -the reversion" (see the -link:howto/revert-a-faulty-merge.html[revert-a-faulty-merge How-To] for details). +You may find this helpful after reverting a topic branch merge, as this option +recreates the topic branch with fresh commits so it can be remerged +successfully without needing to "revert the reversion" (see the +link:howto/revert-a-faulty-merge.html[revert-a-faulty-merge How-To] for +details). --fork-point:: --no-fork-point:: @@ -498,18 +500,6 @@ See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below. with care: the final stash application after a successful rebase might result in non-trivial conflicts. ---no-ff:: - With --interactive, cherry-pick all rebased commits instead of - fast-forwarding over the unchanged ones. This ensures that the - entire history of the rebased branch is composed of new commits. -+ -Without --interactive, this is a synonym for --force-rebase. -+ -You may find this helpful after reverting a topic branch merge, as this option -recreates the topic branch with fresh commits so it can be remerged -successfully without needing to "revert the reversion" (see the -link:howto/revert-a-faulty-merge.html[revert-a-faulty-merge How-To] for details). - INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS -------------------- -- cgit v0.10.2-6-g49f6