git-merge-tree

git merge-tree base_tree branch1_tree branch2_tree

base_tree
    The common ancestor tree-ish.

branch1_tree
    The first branch's tree-ish.

branch2_tree
    The second branch's tree-ish.

The git-merge-tree command is a plumbing command that allows you to view the results of a three-way merge without modifying your working directory. It takes three tree objects as input (base, branch1, branch2) and outputs the resulting merged tree. It's designed for scripting and internal use by Git and is not typically used directly by end-users.

It's particularly useful when you need to inspect the result of a merge before actually performing it. This allows you to identify potential conflicts and other issues that might arise during the merge process. This can be invaluable for advanced Git workflows and build system integration. The resulting tree can be further processed by other Git commands, like git-checkout-index to extract only a specific path, or git-diff-tree to verify changes.

This is a plumbing command and is intended for use in scripts or by other Git commands. It doesn't handle conflict resolution itself; it just presents the merged tree.

The output of git-merge-tree is a single tree object, which is printed to stdout. This object represents the merged content of the three input trees.

If the merge results in conflicts that cannot be automatically resolved, git-merge-tree will still produce a tree, but it might contain conflict markers. It's up to the user or script to handle these conflicts appropriately.

The git-merge-tree command was introduced as part of Git's initial development. It's a core component used internally by higher-level merge commands, but its direct use is primarily for specialized scripting and development purposes.

git checkout-index(1), git diff-tree(1), git merge(1)