Documentation / git-merge-file.txton commit documentation: add tutorial for first contribution (76644e3)
   1git-merge-file(1)
   2=================
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-merge-file - Run a three-way file merge
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  10--------
  11[verse]
  12'git merge-file' [-L <current-name> [-L <base-name> [-L <other-name>]]]
  13        [--ours|--theirs|--union] [-p|--stdout] [-q|--quiet] [--marker-size=<n>]
  14        [--[no-]diff3] <current-file> <base-file> <other-file>
  15
  16
  17DESCRIPTION
  18-----------
  19'git merge-file' incorporates all changes that lead from the `<base-file>`
  20to `<other-file>` into `<current-file>`. The result ordinarily goes into
  21`<current-file>`. 'git merge-file' is useful for combining separate changes
  22to an original. Suppose `<base-file>` is the original, and both
  23`<current-file>` and `<other-file>` are modifications of `<base-file>`,
  24then 'git merge-file' combines both changes.
  25
  26A conflict occurs if both `<current-file>` and `<other-file>` have changes
  27in a common segment of lines. If a conflict is found, 'git merge-file'
  28normally outputs a warning and brackets the conflict with lines containing
  29<<<<<<< and >>>>>>> markers. A typical conflict will look like this:
  30
  31        <<<<<<< A
  32        lines in file A
  33        =======
  34        lines in file B
  35        >>>>>>> B
  36
  37If there are conflicts, the user should edit the result and delete one of
  38the alternatives.  When `--ours`, `--theirs`, or `--union` option is in effect,
  39however, these conflicts are resolved favouring lines from `<current-file>`,
  40lines from `<other-file>`, or lines from both respectively.  The length of the
  41conflict markers can be given with the `--marker-size` option.
  42
  43The exit value of this program is negative on error, and the number of
  44conflicts otherwise (truncated to 127 if there are more than that many
  45conflicts). If the merge was clean, the exit value is 0.
  46
  47'git merge-file' is designed to be a minimal clone of RCS 'merge'; that is, it
  48implements all of RCS 'merge''s functionality which is needed by
  49linkgit:git[1].
  50
  51
  52OPTIONS
  53-------
  54
  55-L <label>::
  56        This option may be given up to three times, and
  57        specifies labels to be used in place of the
  58        corresponding file names in conflict reports. That is,
  59        `git merge-file -L x -L y -L z a b c` generates output that
  60        looks like it came from files x, y and z instead of
  61        from files a, b and c.
  62
  63-p::
  64        Send results to standard output instead of overwriting
  65        `<current-file>`.
  66
  67-q::
  68        Quiet; do not warn about conflicts.
  69
  70--diff3::
  71        Show conflicts in "diff3" style.
  72
  73--ours::
  74--theirs::
  75--union::
  76        Instead of leaving conflicts in the file, resolve conflicts
  77        favouring our (or their or both) side of the lines.
  78
  79
  80EXAMPLES
  81--------
  82
  83`git merge-file README.my README README.upstream`::
  84
  85        combines the changes of README.my and README.upstream since README,
  86        tries to merge them and writes the result into README.my.
  87
  88`git merge-file -L a -L b -L c tmp/a123 tmp/b234 tmp/c345`::
  89
  90        merges tmp/a123 and tmp/c345 with the base tmp/b234, but uses labels
  91        `a` and `c` instead of `tmp/a123` and `tmp/c345`.
  92
  93GIT
  94---
  95Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite