Merging Branches - Git Recipes - page 221

outputs only merge commits, while
$ git log --oneline --no-merges
prints only non-merge commits. You also can set the expected minimal and maximal
number of parents with:
$ git log --oneline --max-parents=X --min-parents=Y
where X and Y are arbitrary positive integers.
Git supports references that allow it to pick up any of the parents for a merge com-
mit using the caret (^) sign. The reference [REVISION]^[n] points to the n-th par-
ent of the commit identified with [REVISION] . As for the repository in Figure 6-9 ,
the master^1 points to the revision m5 ; the master^2 points to the revision f3 , as
illustrated in Figure 6-10 . I will refer to them as n-th parent references .
Figure 6-10 . N-th parent references master^1 and master^2
Remember that the references [REVISION] ∼ , [REVISION] ∼ 1 , [REVISION]^ ,
and [REVISION]^1 are equivalent. This is because 1 is a default value and ∼ always
references the first parent in merge commits.
If you want to use the $ git merge command with confidence, you have to re-
member that the current branch is the branch you merge into , and the branch
passed to $ git merge command is the branch to be merged in . The tip of the branch
you merge into ( master branch) becomes the first parent of a merge commit and the
tip of the branch you merge in ( feature branch) becomes the second parent. The