When it rains it pours

It seems like whenever there’s a merge conflict, it’s rarely just one file in a single commit. It’s always multiple files in multiple commits, and that’s where the endless stream of pain comes when you do things like cherry pick multiple commits or run git pull origin main.

Merge conflicts in git are a necessary evil because of the nature of git. Git has zero insight into which changes precede over eachother, and it relies on the user to make those informed decisions.

Making things easier with merge strategy options

Any command that involves a merge conflict is also going to include the optional parameter for specifying a merge strategy. -X ours and -X theirs are two neat ways to say

If there are conflicts, prefer these changes over those

In Practice

If you want to try it for yourself, run this shell script!

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git branch a
git branch b

git checkout a
echo "a" > foo
git add foo
git commit -m "added a to foo"

git checkout b
echo "b" > foo
git add foo
git commit -m "added b to foo"

git merge a -X theirs

After running this script, foo in branch b will be overwritten with the changes from branch a. You can safely delete both branches a and b without reprecussions (unless for some reason you have a branch that already exists named a or b).

If you enjoyed this article, have any questions, noticed something inaccurate, or you just want to say hi feel free to drop a comment below or send an email to me@norling.io