X-Git-Url: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~ianmdlvl/git?p=dgit.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=git-debrebase.5.pod;h=d39ad9484986fb022e98e735a030d91f6e136063;hp=5cfa3761080eb5c6accffa98cfd6682b72cbffa0;hb=e019247f462f1580abe05ec3c0e7724781a73096;hpb=4eee70a2b1710c1a8fc71fbd3cdc7064682a799c

diff --git a/git-debrebase.5.pod b/git-debrebase.5.pod
index 5cfa3761..d39ad948 100644
--- a/git-debrebase.5.pod
+++ b/git-debrebase.5.pod
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ as a series of individual git commits,
 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.
@@ -24,9 +26,14 @@ itself is not very suitable for use by Debian derivatives,
 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
@@ -177,7 +184,7 @@ known as B<unstitched>.
 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
@@ -381,8 +388,8 @@ general merges on any of the relevant branches.
 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.
@@ -401,7 +408,7 @@ Nonlinear (merging) history in the breakwater branch is
 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,
@@ -480,6 +487,48 @@ These patch files can be stripped out and/or regenerated as needed.
 
 =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
@@ -511,7 +560,8 @@ The full set of annotations is:
 
 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,