git-merge-file

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gitmerge -file [ -L <current -name> [ -L <base -name> [ -L <other -name>]]] [ --ours| --theirs| --union] [ -p| --stdout] [ -q| --quiet] [ --marker -size=<n>] [ --[no -]diff3] <current -file> <base -file> <other -file>

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gitmerge -file incorporates all changes that lead from the <base-file> to <other-file> into <current-file> . The result ordinarily goes into <current-file> . gitmerge -file is useful for combining separate changes to an original . Suppose <base-file> is the original, and both <current-file> and <other-file> are modifications of <base-file> ,then gitmerge -file combines both changes .

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A conflict occurs if both <current-file> and <other-file> have changes in a common segment of lines . If a conflict is found, gitmerge -file normally outputs a warning and brackets the conflict with lines containing <<<<<<< and >>>>>>> markers . A typical conflict will look like this:

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.RS 4
<<<<<<< A lines in file A ======= lines in file B >>>>>>> B .RE

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If there are conflicts, the user should edit the result and delete one of the alternatives . When --ours , --theirs ,or --union option is in effect, however, these conflicts are resolved favouring lines from <current-file> ,lines from <other-file> ,or lines from both respectively . The length of the conflict markers can be given with the --marker -size option .

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The exit value of this program is negative on error, and the number of conflicts otherwise (truncated to 127 if there are more than that many conflicts) . If the merge was clean, the exit value is 0 .

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gitmerge -file is designed to be a minimal clone of RCS merge ;that is, it implements all of RCS merge (Aqs functionality which is needed by git (1).

-L <label> This option may be given up to three times, and specifies labels to be used in place of the corresponding file names in conflict reports . That is, gitmerge -file -L x -L y -L z a b c generates output that looks like it came from files x, y and z instead of from files a, b and c .

-p Send results to standard output instead of overwriting <current-file> .

-q Quiet; do not warn about conflicts .

--diff3 Show conflicts in "diff3" style .

--ours, --theirs, --union Instead of leaving conflicts in the file, resolve conflicts favouring our (or their or both) side of the lines .

gitmerge -file README .my README README .upstream combines the changes of README .my and README .upstream since README, tries to merge them and writes the result into README .my .

gitmerge -file -L a -L b -L c tmp/a123 tmp/b234 tmp/c345 merges tmp/a123 and tmp/c345 with the base tmp/b234, but uses labels a and c instead of tmp/a123 and tmp/c345 .

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Part of the git (1)suite