Re: [PATCH v3 1/6] doc: add new gitmergeconflicts man page

[Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>]

"Julia Evans" <julia@jvns.ca> writes:

>> I do not know "because it's awkward" is a good justification,
>> though.  "awkward" why?
>
> It's because `apply` and `am` can also apply patches, and that's a whole
> separate topic than explaining the 3-way merge. I think explaining the
> difference between applying a patch and doing a 3-way merge could
> be interesting to do in the future but this is already quite a big patch
> series.

I do not quite follow.  "apply -3" is making a 3-way merge among the
state _your_ working tree is in, the state shown as the preimage in
the patch (i.e., before the patch author had the change they gave
you in the patch), and the state shown as the postimage in the patch
(i.e., after the patch author made the change).

It is no different from the case where cherry-picking the change the
patch author had stopped in conflict if (1) the machinery did find
the necessary preimage blobs and (2) the 3way application did stop
in a conflict.

>> I however agree that it is better to avoid appearing to be complete
>> and leaving others (including future ones we add) with "any other
>> command that does a merge" as this round of document gives.

Thanks.