-git-rebase applies to <upstream> (or optionally to <newbase>) commits
-from <branch> that do not appear in <upstream>. When <branch> is not
-specified it defaults to the current branch (HEAD).
-
-When git-rebase is complete, <branch> will be updated to point to the
-newly created line of commit objects, so the previous line will not be
-accessible unless there are other references to it already.
+git-rebase replaces <branch> with a new branch of the same name. When
+the --onto option is provided the new branch starts out with a HEAD equal
+to <newbase>, otherwise it is equal to <upstream>. It then attempts to
+create a new commit for each commit from the original <branch> that does
+not exist in the <upstream> branch.
+
+It is possible that a merge failure will prevent this process from being
+completely automatic. You will have to resolve any such merge failure
+and run `git rebase --continue`. Another option is to bypass the commit
+that caused the merge failure with `git rebase --skip`. To restore the
+original <branch> and remove the .dotest working files, use the command
+`git rebase --abort` instead.
+
+Note that if <branch> is not specified on the command line, the currently
+checked out branch is used.