Hi folks.
This tree has some branches with simple, well-known edit conflicts in it. To experiment with a given conflict, run the commands outlined in that section.
This repository's baseline state contains a simple grocery list. This is a text file with one line per item and a relatively small number of items - but sufficient to establish context around diffs.
The edit-conflict/left and edit-conflict/right branches contain edits that
both change the same line of the grocery list. The left branch changes the
line "- Ham" for "- Bacon" and the right branch changes the line "- Ham" for
"- Beef".
As both branches alter the same line, you can't merge both without generating a conflict for that line:
$ git checkout master
$ git merge edit-conflict/left
$ git merge edit-conflict/right
Auto-merging groceries.txt
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in groceries.txt
Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.
This is a good way to experiment with manual resolution, rerere, merge
tools, and other approaches to resolving simple conflicts.
If you get really stuck, run git reset --hard origin/master to throw away
your work and start back from a clean version of the master branch.
The append-conflict/left and append-conflict/right branches contain a
common variation on edit conflicts, where the changes on both branches are at
the end of the file (and there's no trailing context). The left branch appends
the line '- Toys for Bob' and the right branch appends the line '- Cookies'.
The process for testing this conflict is as above.
Edit-move conflicts are a kind of "tree" conflict, where branches make
incompatible changes to the structure of the project rather than to the
contents of files. The edit-move/left branch changes the line "- Ham" for "-
Bacon" as above, while the right branch changes the name of the file from
"groceries.txt" to "grocery-list.txt".
Git will automatically resolve this kind of conflict:
$ git checkout master -b t
$ git merge edit-move/left
$ git merge edit-move/right
Merge made by recursive.
groceries.txt => grocery-list.txt | 0
1 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
rename groceries.txt => grocery-list.txt (100%)
Note that after this merge, grocery-list.txt still contains the line "- Bacon" from the left branch.
Move-move conflicts are a second kind of tree conflict. In this case, both
branches make changes to the structure of the project in conflicting ways. The
move-move/left branch renames "groceries.txt" to "shopping.txt", while the
move-move/right branch renames "groceries.txt" to "grocery-list.txt". When
you merge them, Git does something interesting:
$ git checkout master
$ git merge move-move/left
Fast-forward
groceries.txt => shopping.txt | 0
1 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
rename groceries.txt => shopping.txt (100%)
$ git merge move-move/right
error: refusing to lose untracked file at 'grocery-list.txt'
error: refusing to lose untracked file at 'grocery-list.txt'
CONFLICT (rename/rename): Rename "groceries.txt"->"shopping.txt" in branch "HEAD" rename "groceries.txt"->"grocery-list.txt" in "move-move/right"
CONFLICT (rename/rename): Rename "groceries.txt"->"shopping.txt" in branch "HEAD" rename "groceries.txt"->"grocery-list.txt" in "move-move/right"
Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.
$ git status
# On branch t
# Unmerged paths:
# (use "git add/rm <file>..." as appropriate to mark resolution)
#
# both deleted: groceries.txt
# added by them: grocery-list.txt
# added by us: shopping.txt
#
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")
Unlike the edit-conflict case, there are no conflict markers in the individual
files. You'll need to decide which of the two result files to keep, git add
that one, and git rm the other one (or opt to keep both using git add)
before you can git commit the merge.
These are the simple baseline cases. However, you can concoct some even worse scenarios by combining them. For example, combining tree conflicts with edit conflicts:
$ git checkout master -b problem/left
Switched to a new branch 'problem/left'
$ git merge edit-conflict/left
Fast-forward
groceries.txt | 2 +-
1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
$ git merge move-move/left
Merge made by recursive.
groceries.txt => shopping.txt | 0
1 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
rename groceries.txt => shopping.txt (100%)
$ git checkout master -b problem/right
Switched to a new branch 'problem/right'
$ git merge edit-conflict/right
Fast-forward
groceries.txt | 2 +-
1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
$ git merge move-move/right
Merge made by recursive.
groceries.txt => grocery-list.txt | 0
1 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
rename groceries.txt => grocery-list.txt (100%)
$ git checkout master -b problem/merge
Switched to a new branch 'problem/merge'
$ git merge problem/left
Fast-forward
groceries.txt => shopping.txt | 2 +-
1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
rename groceries.txt => shopping.txt (87%)
$ git merge problem/right
error: refusing to lose untracked file at 'grocery-list.txt'
error: refusing to lose untracked file at 'grocery-list.txt'
CONFLICT (rename/rename): Rename "groceries.txt"->"shopping.txt" in branch "HEAD" rename "groceries.txt"->"grocery-list.txt" in "problem/right"
CONFLICT (rename/rename): Rename "groceries.txt"->"shopping.txt" in branch "HEAD" rename "groceries.txt"->"grocery-list.txt" in "problem/right"
Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.
Describing and resolving this scenario left as an exercise.
To keep the history of this repository simple and easy-to-follow, I regularly
push history-altering changes. Do not rely on being able to pull and merge
from this repository; if you're starting a new set of experiments, clone a new
copy of this repository. I do try to keep the history of master intact, so
that pull requests make sense, but the conflict branches get reset and rebased
as needed.