X-Git-Url: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~ianmdlvl/git?p=dgit.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=git-debrebase.5.pod;h=ce982369c3132af1110e2d6d4f62b104659403c0;hp=1c73ea3a15990a401d1f0097f14cd48fa71dd94e;hb=d76a377b48bbcc3dcaf85100588a2d5d4d151db4;hpb=2c673e36ec3a2ab290db7588680dcfee82b24616

diff --git a/git-debrebase.5.pod b/git-debrebase.5.pod
index 1c73ea3a..ce982369 100644
--- a/git-debrebase.5.pod
+++ b/git-debrebase.5.pod
@@ -269,6 +269,68 @@ We use the commit message annotation to
 distinguish the special anchor merges from other general merges,
 so we can at least detect unsupported merges.
 
+=head1 LEGAL OPERATIONS
+
+The following basic operations follows from this model
+(refer to the diagram above):
+
+=over
+
+=item Append linear commits
+
+No matter the branch state,
+it is always fine to simply git commit
+(or cherry-pick etc.)
+commits containing upstream file changes, packaging changes,
+or both.
+
+=item Launder branch
+
+Record the previous tip in ffq-prev,
+if we were stitched before.
+
+Reorganise the current branch so that the debian/
+changes come first,
+turning C<-@-A-1-2-B3> into C<...@-A-B-1-2-3>.
+
+Drop pseudomerges and any quilt patches.
+
+=item Interactive rebase
+
+With a laundered branch,
+one can do an interactive git rebase of the delta queue.
+
+=item New upstream rebase
+
+Start rebasing onto a new upstream version,
+turning C<...#..@-A-B-1-2-3> into C<(...#..@-A-B-|...#'-)@'-1-2>.
+
+This has to be a wrapper around git-rebase,
+which prepares @' and then tries to rebase 1 2 onto @'.
+If the user asks for an interactive rebase,
+@' doesn't appear in thec ommit list.
+
+Note that the construction of @' cannot fail
+because @' simply copies debian/ from B and and everything else from #'.
+(Rebasing A and B is undesirable.
+We want the debian/ files to be non-rebasing
+so that git log shows the packaging history.)
+
+=item Stitch 
+
+Make a pseudomerge,
+overwriting (and consuming) ffq-prev.
+
+=item Commit patches
+
+To generate a tree which can be represented as a
+3.0 (quilt) .dsc source packages,
+the delta queue must be reified inside the git tree
+in B<debian/patches/>.
+(These can be stripped out and/or regenerated as needed.)
+
+=back
+
 =head1 TERMINOLOGY
 
 =over