Merge branch 'rr/parse-date-refactor'

[git.git] / Documentation / user-manual.txt

diff --git a/Documentation/user-manual.txt b/Documentation/user-manual.txt
index 27d97b6d1e7705dd4025a33b5b9ab668cfaa15e1..fe6fb722da1a5c288c7ae3757622aac8cac79a73 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/user-manual.txt
+++ b/Documentation/user-manual.txt
@@ -1183,7 +1183,23 @@ $ git merge branchname
 -------------------------------------------------
 
 merges the development in the branch "branchname" into the current
-branch.  If there are conflicts--for example, if the same file is
+branch.
+
+A merge is made by combining the changes made in "branchname" and the
+changes made up to the latest commit in your current branch since
+their histories forked. The work tree is overwritten by the result of
+the merge when this combining is done cleanly, or overwritten by a
+half-merged results when this combining results in conflicts.
+Therefore, if you have uncommitted changes touching the same files as
+the ones impacted by the merge, Git will refuse to proceed. Most of
+the time, you will want to commit your changes before you can merge,
+and if you don't, then linkgit:git-stash[1] can take these changes
+away while you're doing the merge, and reapply them afterwards.
+
+If the changes are independent enough, Git will automatically complete
+the merge and commit the result (or reuse an existing commit in case
+of <<fast-forwards,fast-forward>>, see below). On the other hand,
+if there are conflicts--for example, if the same file is
 modified in two different ways in the remote branch and the local
 branch--then you are warned; the output may look something like this:
 
@@ -1679,7 +1695,7 @@ Sharing development with others
 Getting updates with git pull
 -----------------------------
 
-After you clone a repository and make a few changes of your own, you
+After you clone a repository and commit a few changes of your own, you
 may wish to check the original repository for updates and merge them
 into your own work.
 
@@ -3624,6 +3640,26 @@ Did you forget to 'git add'?
 Unable to checkout '261dfac35cb99d380eb966e102c1197139f7fa24' in submodule path 'a'
 -------------------------------------------------
 
+In older git versions it could be easily forgotten to commit new or modified
+files in a submodule, which silently leads to similar problems as not pushing
+the submodule changes. Starting with git 1.7.0 both "git status" and "git diff"
+in the superproject show submodules as modified when they contain new or
+modified files to protect against accidentally committing such a state. "git
+diff" will also add a "-dirty" to the work tree side when generating patch
+output or used with the --submodule option:
+
+-------------------------------------------------
+$ git diff
+diff --git a/sub b/sub
+--- a/sub
++++ b/sub
+@@ -1 +1 @@
+-Subproject commit 3f356705649b5d566d97ff843cf193359229a453
++Subproject commit 3f356705649b5d566d97ff843cf193359229a453-dirty
+$ git diff --submodule
+Submodule sub 3f35670..3f35670-dirty:
+-------------------------------------------------
+
 You also should not rewind branches in a submodule beyond commits that were
 ever recorded in any superproject.