X-Git-Url: https://asedeno.scripts.mit.edu/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=Documentation%2Fmerge-strategies.txt;h=a5bc1dbb95b466d0c6e37f683c886663908375e7;hb=7e7db5e4520388d3a6f1efbe2f7a29d43bd06a2b;hp=42910a3d5e0229f471c5bceb0c36f184d17ebb08;hpb=800d1fb0ab4bc9c1f4cd13f7cb7d8851f23a3e50;p=git.git

diff --git a/Documentation/merge-strategies.txt b/Documentation/merge-strategies.txt
index 42910a3d5..a5bc1dbb9 100644
--- a/Documentation/merge-strategies.txt
+++ b/Documentation/merge-strategies.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,11 @@
 MERGE STRATEGIES
 ----------------
 
+The merge mechanism ('git-merge' and 'git-pull' commands) allows the
+backend 'merge strategies' to be chosen with `-s` option.  Some strategies
+can also take their own options, which can be passed by giving `-X<option>`
+arguments to 'git-merge' and/or 'git-pull'.
+
 resolve::
 	This can only resolve two heads (i.e. the current branch
 	and another branch you pulled from) using a 3-way merge
@@ -20,6 +25,27 @@ recursive::
 	Additionally this can detect and handle merges involving
 	renames.  This is the default merge strategy when
 	pulling or merging one branch.
++
+The 'recursive' strategy can take the following options:
+
+ours;;
+	This option forces conflicting hunks to be auto-resolved cleanly by
+	favoring 'our' version.  Changes from the other tree that do not
+	conflict with our side are reflected to the merge result.
++
+This should not be confused with the 'ours' merge strategy, which does not
+even look at what the other tree contains at all.  It discards everything
+the other tree did, declaring 'our' history contains all that happened in it.
+
+theirs;;
+	This is opposite of 'ours'.
+
+subtree[=path];;
+	This option is a more advanced form of 'subtree' strategy, where
+	the strategy makes a guess on how two trees must be shifted to
+	match with each other when merging.  Instead, the specified path
+	is prefixed (or stripped from the beginning) to make the shape of
+	two trees to match.
 
 octopus::
 	This resolves cases with more than two heads, but refuses to do
@@ -33,7 +59,8 @@ ours::
 	merge is always that of the current branch head, effectively
 	ignoring all changes from all other branches.  It is meant to
 	be used to supersede old development history of side
-	branches.
+	branches.  Note that this is different from the -Xours option to
+	the 'recursive' merge strategy.
 
 subtree::
 	This is a modified recursive strategy. When merging trees A and