updates (code clean-up, load checking etc.)

(portability)

 * Some more MSVC portability patches for msysgit port.

 * Minimum Pthreads emulation for msysgit port.

(performance)

 * More performance improvement patches for msysgit port.

(usability, bells and whistles)

 * More commands learned "--quiet" and "--[no-]progress" options.

 * Various commands given by the end user (e.g. diff.type.textconv,
   and GIT_EDITOR) can be specified with command line arguments.  E.g. it
   is now possible to say "[diff "utf8doc"] textconv = nkf -w".

 * "sparse checkout" feature allows only part of the work tree to be
   checked out.

 * HTTP transfer can use authentication scheme other than basic
   (i.e./e.g. digest).

 * Switching from a version of superproject that used to have a submodule
   to another version of superproject that no longer has it did not remove
   the submodule directory when it should (namely, when you are not
   interested in the submodule at all and didn't clone/checkout).

 * A new attribute conflict-marker-size can be used to change the size of
   the conflict markers from the default 7; this is useful when tracked
   contents (e.g. git-merge documentation) have strings that resemble the
   conflict markers.

 * A new syntax "<branch>@{upstream}" can be used on the command line to
   substitute the name of the "upstream" of the branch.  Missing branch
   defaults to the current branch, so "git fetch && git merge @{upstream}"
   will be equivalent to "git pull".

 * "git am --resolved" has a synonym "git am --continue".

 * "git branch --set-upstream" can be used to update the (surprise!) upstream,
   i.e. where the branch is supposed to pull and merge from (or rebase onto).

 * "git checkout A...B" is a way to detach HEAD at the merge base between
   A and B.

 * "git checkout -m path" to reset the work tree file back into the
   conflicted state works even when you already ran "git add path" and
   resolved the conflicts.

 * "git commit --date='<date>'" can be used to override the author date
   just like "git commit --author='<name> <email>'" can be used to
   override the author identity.

 * "git commit --no-status" can be used to omit the listing of the index
   and the work tree status in the editor used to prepare the log message.

 * "git commit" warns a bit more aggressively until you configure user.email,
   whose default value almost always is not (and fundamentally cannot be)
   what you want.

 * "git difftool" has been extended to make it easier to integrate it
   with gitk.

 * "git fetch --all" can now be used in place of "git remote update".

 * "git grep" does not rely on external grep anymore.  It can use more than
   one thread to accelerate the operation.

 * "git grep" learned "--quiet" option.

 * "git log" and friends learned "--glob=heads/*" syntax that is a more
   flexible way to complement