[v2] docs/format-patch: mention handling of merges

Commit Message

Jeff King May 1, 2021, 2:13 p.m. UTC

Format-patch doesn't have a way to format merges in a way that can be
applied by git-am (or any other tool), and so it just omits them.
However, this may be a surprising implication for users who are not well
versed in how the tool works. Let's add a note to the documentation
making this more clear.

Signed-off-by: Jeff King <[e-mail]>
---
This is a re-work of the patch from:

  https://lore.kernel.org/git/[e-mail]/

taking into account Junio's suggestion (and also rebased on top of
28e29ee38b, which touches the same intro paragraph).

 Documentation/git-format-patch.txt | 10 +++++++++-
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

Patch

diff --git a/Documentation/git-format-patch.txt b/Documentation/git-format-patch.txt
index 911da181a1..fe2f69d36e 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-format-patch.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-format-patch.txt
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@  SYNOPSIS
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
 
-Prepare each commit with its "patch" in
+Prepare each non-merge commit with its "patch" in
 one "message" per commit, formatted to resemble a UNIX mailbox.
 The output of this command is convenient for e-mail submission or
 for use with 'git am'.
@@ -740,6 +740,14 @@  use it only when you know the recipient uses Git to apply your patch.
 $ git format-patch -3
 ------------
 
+CAVEATS
+-------
+
+Note that `format-patch` will omit merge commits from the output, even
+if they are part of the requested range. A simple "patch" does not
+include enough information for the receiving end to reproduce the same
+merge commit.
+
 SEE ALSO
 --------
 linkgit:git-am[1], linkgit:git-send-email[1]