Documentation/git-replay.adoc: fix errors around revision range

From: Elijah Newren <[email protected]>

There was significant confusion in the git-replay manual about what constitutes a revision range. As noted in f302c1e4aa09 (revisions(7):
clarify that most commands take a single revision range, 2021-05-18):

Commands that are specifically designed to take two distinct ranges (e.g. "git range-diff R1 R2" to compare two ranges) do exist, but they are exceptions. Unless otherwise noted, all "git" commands that operate on a set of commits work on a single revision range.

git replay is not an exception, but a few places in the manual were written as though it were. These appear to have come in revisions to the original series, between v3->v4 (see
https://lore.kernel.org/git/CAP8UFD3bpLrVW97DH7j=V9H2GsTSAkksC9L3QujQERFk_kLnZA@mail.gmail.com/
, "More than one <revision-range> can be passed") and between v6->v7
(https://lore.kernel.org/git/[email protected]/,
"Takes ranges of commits"), and I missed both of these revisions when reviewing. Fix them now.

There was also a reference to the "Commit Limiting options below", but this page has no such section of options; strike the misleading reference.

It is worth noting that we are documenting existing behavior, rather than optimal behavior. Junio has multiple times suggested introducing alternative ways to walk revisions and use them in git replay --advance, e.g. at
* https://lore.kernel.org/git/[email protected]/
* https://lore.kernel.org/git/[email protected]/
* https://lore.kernel.org/git/[email protected]/ (item (2))
If/when we introduce some new revision walking flag that implements one of these alternate types of revision walks, we can update the --advance option and this manual appropriately.

---
Documentation/git-replay.adoc: fix errors around revision range

This has a minor conflict with Phillip's recent patch where he adds an extra sentence to the description for <revision range>, to note that empty commits will be dropped. (See
https://lore.kernel.org/git/8a2a1215306452147cc7b803530ab2429bf57f15.1764260150.git.phillip.wood@dunelm.org.uk/)
The resolution is simply appending that sentence from his patch to the rewritten description from this patch. If you prefer I wait and resend after Phillip's patch merges (which in turn will wait until after ps/history), just let me know.

Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-2012%2Fnewren%2Freplay-revision-range-wording-v1
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-2012/newren/replay-revision-range-wording-v1
Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/2012

 Documentation/git-replay.adoc | 13 ++++++-------
 builtin/replay.c              |  2 +-
 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

index dcb26e8a8e..d03235cca0 100644
@@ -9,12 +9,12 @@ git-replay - EXPERIMENTAL: Replay commits on a new base, works with bare repos t
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
-(EXPERIMENTAL!) 'git replay' ([--contained] --onto <newbase> | --advance <branch>) [--ref-action[=<mode>]] <revision-range>...
+(EXPERIMENTAL!) 'git replay' ([--contained] --onto <newbase> | --advance <branch>) [--ref-action[=<mode>]] <revision-range>
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
 
-Takes ranges of commits and replays them onto a new location. Leaves
+Takes a range of commits and replays them onto a new location. Leaves
 the working tree and the index untouched. By default, updates the
 relevant references using an atomic transaction (all refs update or
 none). Use `--ref-action=print` to avoid automatic ref updates and

@@ -55,11 +55,10 @@ which uses the target only as a starting point without updating it.
 The default mode can be configured via the `replay.refAction` configuration variable.
 
 <revision-range>::
-	Range of commits to replay. More than one <revision-range> can
-	be passed, but in `--advance <branch>` mode, they should have
-	a single tip, so that it's clear where <branch> should point
-	to. See "Specifying Ranges" in linkgit:git-rev-parse[1] and the
-	"Commit Limiting" options below.
+	Range of commits to replay; see "Specifying Ranges" in
+	linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]. In `--advance <branch>` mode, the
+	range should have a single tip, so that it's clear to which tip the
+	advanced <branch> should point.
 
 include::rev-list-options.adoc[]
 

index 6606a2c94b..e6d6d28239 100644
@@ -366,7 +366,7 @@ int cmd_replay(int argc,
 	const char *const replay_usage[] = {
 		N_("(EXPERIMENTAL!) git replay "
 		   "([--contained] --onto <newbase> | --advance <branch>) "
-		   "[--ref-action[=<mode>]] <revision-range>..."),
+		   "[--ref-action[=<mode>]] <revision-range>"),
 		NULL
 	};
 	struct option replay_options[] = {

base-commit: b31ab939fe8e3cbe8be48dddd1c6ac0265991f45

gitgitgadget

Thanks, will apply.