Resolving Conflicts

What Causes Conflicts?

Conflicts occur when: - Two branches modify the same line in the same file - A file is deleted in one branch but modified in another - Different changes are made to the same file

Identifying Conflicts

When a merge or rebase fails due to conflicts:

git status

Shows files with conflicts.

Conflict Markers

Git marks conflicts with:

<<<<<<< HEAD
Your changes
=======
Incoming changes
>>>>>>> branch-name

Resolving Process

1. Edit the conflicted files
2. Remove conflict markers
3. Choose which changes to keep
4. Stage the resolved files
5. Commit the resolution

# Edit file and resolve conflicts
# Then stage
git add resolved-file.txt

# Commit
git commit

Tools for Resolving Conflicts

Command Line

# See differences
git diff

# See what you changed
git diff HEAD

# See what they changed
git diff MERGE_HEAD

GUI Tools

# Use mergetool
git mergetool

# Configure mergetool
git config --global merge.tool vimdiff

Abort Merge/Rebase

# Abort merge
git merge --abort

# Abort rebase
git rebase --abort

Conflict Resolution Strategies

Accept Yours

git checkout --ours file.txt
git add file.txt

Accept Theirs

git checkout --theirs file.txt
git add file.txt

Manual Resolution

Edit the file manually and remove markers.

Preventing Conflicts

• Communicate with team
• Pull frequently
• Use feature branches
• Keep commits small and focused

Binary Files

For binary files, you must choose one version:

# Keep your version
git checkout --ours binary-file.jpg

# Keep their version
git checkout --theirs binary-file.jpg