which can worked on with rebase,
and also shared.
+=head2 DISCUSSION
+
git-debrebase is designed to work well with dgit.
git-debrebase can also be used in workflows without source packages,
for example to work on Debian-format packages outside or alongside Debian.
to work on packages inherited from Debian,
because it assumes that you want to throw away any packaging
provided by your upstream.
-However, of git-debrebase in Debian does not make anything harder for
+However, use of git-debrebase in Debian does not make anything harder for
derivatives, and it can make some things easier.
+When using gitk on branches managed by git-debrebase,
+B<gitk --date-order>, B<gitk --first-parent>
+and B<gitk -- :.> (or B<gitk .>)
+produce more useful output than the default.
+
=head1 TERMINOLOGY
=over
While a branch is unstitched,
it is not in interchange format.
The previous interchange branch tip
-tip is recorded,
+is recorded,
so that the previous history
and the user's work
can later be
For this reason the tools will try to help the user
avoid divergence of the interchange branch.
-See dgit-maint-rebase(7) XXX TBD
-for a discussio of what kinds of behaviours
+See dgit-maint-rebase(7)
+for a discussion of what kinds of behaviours
should be be avoided
because
they might generate such merges.
in principle tolerable,
but each of the parents would have to be, in turn,
a breakwater,
-and difficult qeustions arise if they don't have the same anchor.
+and difficult questions arise if they don't have the same anchor.
We use the commit message annotation to
distinguish the special anchor merges from other general merges,
=back
+=head1 ILLEGAL OPERATIONS
+
+Some git operations are not permitted in this data model.
+Performing them will break git-debrebase.
+
+=over
+
+=item General merges
+
+See L</OTHER MERGES>, above.
+
+=item git-rebase starting too soon, or without base argument
+
+git-rebase must not be invoked in such a way that
+the chosen base is before the anchor,
+or before the last pseudomerge.
+This is because git-rebase mangles merges.
+git rebase --preserve-merges is also dangerous.
+
+git-rebase without a base argument will often start too early.
+
+For these reasons,
+it is better to use git-debrebase and
+let it choose the base
+for your rebase.
+If you do realise you have make this mistake,
+it is best to use the reflog to recover to a suitable
+good previous state.
+
+=item Editing debian/patches
+
+debian/patches is an output from git-debrebase,
+not an input.
+If you edit patches git-debrebase will complain
+and refuse to work.
+If you add patches your work is likely to be discarded.
+
+Instead of editing patches,
+use git-debrebase to edit the corresponding commits.
+
+=back
+
=head1 COMMIT MESSAGE ANNOTATIONS
git-debrebase makes annotations
[git-debrebase upstream-combine . PIECE[ PIECE...]: new upstream]
[git-debrebase anchor: new upstream NEW-UPSTREAM-VERSION, merge]
[git-debrebase: new upstream NEW-UPSTREAM-VERSION, changelog]
+ [git-debrebase: export and commit patches]
[git-debrebase convert-from-gbp: drop patches]
[git-debrebase anchor: declare upstream]
Only anchor merges have the C<[git-debrebase anchor: ...]> tag.
Single-parent anchors are not generated by git-debrebase,
-and when made manually should not be tagged.
+and when made manually should not
+contain any C<[git-debrebase ...]> annotation.
The C<split mixed commit> and C<convert dgit import>
tags are added to the pre-existing commit message,