gitk: weird history tree

Question

I\'m porting an svn repo to git (using svn2git from https://www.negativetwenty.net/redmine/projects/show/svn2git) and since svn does not track merges, I need to edit .git/in

Answer 1

See how "git log" shows the branch being merged into trunk, while gitk shows trunk being merged in branch.

That is because gitk freely reorders parents — as do many other tools. The leftmost parent is not always the 1st parent. Often tools put the parents whereever there is space. It ultimately provides for a more packed view. Compare:

• http://i53.tinypic.com/29lfyti.png - git log makes "master" wind around the "nucrypt2" branch so that the X'th (X>=2) parent is always right of the merge
• http://i52.tinypic.com/sc7r5v.png - git-forest, default
• http://i51.tinypic.com/28iatjd.png - same, with merge shortcut seeking disabled

I find git-log's graphing not very ergonomic - it takes more blank lines.