git-rev-list: add --exclude-first-parent-only flag

It is useful to know when a branch first diverged in history
from some integration branch in order to be able to enumerate
the user's local changes. However, these local changes can
include arbitrary merges, so it is necessary to ignore this
merge structure when finding the divergence point.

In order to do this, teach the "rev-list" family to accept
"--exclude-first-parent-only", which restricts the traversal
of excluded commits to only follow first parent links.

   -A-----E-F-G--main
     \   / /
      B-C-D--topic

In this example, the goal is to return the set {B, C, D} which
represents a topic branch that has been merged into main branch.
`git rev-list topic ^main` will end up returning no commits
since excluding main will end up traversing the commits on topic
as well. `git rev-list --exclude-first-parent-only topic ^main`
however will return {B, C, D} as desired.

Add docs for the new flag, and clarify the doc for --first-parent
to indicate that it applies to traversing the set of included
commits only.

Signed-off-by: Jerry Zhang <jerry@skydio.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

1 files changed, 15 insertions, 7 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/rev-list-options.txt b/Documentation/rev-list-options.txt
index 43a86fa562..fd4f4e26c9 100644
--- a/Documentation/rev-list-options.txt
+++ b/Documentation/rev-list-options.txt
@@ -122,19 +122,27 @@ again.  Equivalent forms are `--min-parents=0` (any commit has 0 or more
 parents) and `--max-parents=-1` (negative numbers denote no upper limit).
 
 --first-parent::
-	Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge
-	commit.  This option can give a better overview when
-	viewing the evolution of a particular topic branch,
-	because merges into a topic branch tend to be only about
-	adjusting to updated upstream from time to time, and
-	this option allows you to ignore the individual commits
-	brought in to your history by such a merge.
+	When finding commits to include, follow only the first
+	parent commit upon seeing a merge commit.  This option
+	can give a better overview when viewing the evolution of
+	a particular topic branch, because merges into a topic
+	branch tend to be only about adjusting to updated upstream
+	from time to time, and this option allows you to ignore
+	the individual commits brought in to your history by such
+	a merge.
 ifdef::git-log[]
 +
 This option also changes default diff format for merge commits
 to `first-parent`, see `--diff-merges=first-parent` for details.
 endif::git-log[]
 
+--exclude-first-parent-only::
+	When finding commits to exclude (with a '{caret}'), follow only
+	the first parent commit upon seeing a merge commit.
+	This can be used to find the set of changes in a topic branch
+	from the point where it diverged from the remote branch, given
+	that arbitrary merges can be valid topic branch changes.
+
 --not::
 	Reverses the meaning of the '{caret}' prefix (or lack thereof)
 	for all following revision specifiers, up to the next `--not`.