git-mergetool--lib

`. git-mergetool--lib`

The `git-mergetool--lib` script provides a library of functions intended to be used by custom merge tools invoked by `git mergetool`. It facilitates common tasks such as finding conflicting files, presenting them to the user, and integrating merge results back into the Git repository.

It is not intended to be executed directly by users. Instead, custom merge tool scripts should source this library to simplify their implementation and to achieve consistent behavior across different environments.

The functions within `git-mergetool--lib` handle various aspects of the merge process, including:
* Identifying files with merge conflicts.
* Launching the user's specified merge tool on these conflicting files.
* Detecting whether the merge tool successfully resolved the conflicts.
* Staging the resolved files for commit.

This is a library file; it is not an executable command. It's designed to be sourced into a shell script.

To use this library in a custom merge tool script, include the following line at the beginning of the script:
`. git-mergetool--lib`
After sourcing the library, your script can call functions defined within it to handle the merge process. Refer to the Git documentation and example merge tool scripts for specific function usage details.

The `git-mergetool--lib` script evolved as part of Git's development to standardize the interaction between `git mergetool` and external merge programs. Its goal was to ensure that custom merge tools could be easily integrated and would behave predictably. Initially, integration was more ad-hoc, requiring each tool to be configured individually. This library provides a common framework, simplifying the process and reducing the amount of tool-specific logic needed within Git itself.

git-mergetool(1), git(1)