To get to the state where you see the merge conflicts, you will have to use the command git merge main on your branch to merge changes of the current main branch into your feature branch. Some people prefer using git rebase main instead of git merge, because it results in a "cleaner" looking git history, but my personal experience is that changing the history of a branch with a rebase is more trouble than it is worth 99,99% of the time.
After you got the conflicting changes on your branch, you need a merge tool to resolve them. I prefer kdiff3, although its UI is a little clunky and not at all beginner-friendly. The tool will probably be able to resolve some conflicts automatically, but leave a few of them for you to fix.
If everything else fails, here are a few ugly hacks that can get you out of dicey situations:
If you have trouble using kdiff3, you can use a normal text editor instead to bring the conflicting files in a correct state.
You can always use git reset --hard HEAD to abort the merge. WARNING: This will delete all your uncommitted local changes.
If you borked your git history on your local working copy, you can revert local commits with git reset --hard hashOfLastCorrectCommit. A more convenient way of doing this is using the tool gitk that comes with the git-gui package. Using gitk --all you get an overview of all your branches and you can right-click on any past commit to "reset [branch-name] to here", which is equivalent to using git reset. WARNING: This also changes the history and should only be done to revert local commits that have not been pushed to the online repository.
@manuEbg Nice review. I agree with your comments.
@IlmarB If you have trouble, resolving the conflicts in this branch, you can follow this simple tutorial for resolving merge conflicts.
To get to the state where you see the merge conflicts, you will have to use the command
git merge mainon your branch to merge changes of the current main branch into your feature branch. Some people prefer usinggit rebase maininstead ofgit merge, because it results in a "cleaner" looking git history, but my personal experience is that changing the history of a branch with a rebase is more trouble than it is worth 99,99% of the time.After you got the conflicting changes on your branch, you need a merge tool to resolve them. I prefer kdiff3, although its UI is a little clunky and not at all beginner-friendly. The tool will probably be able to resolve some conflicts automatically, but leave a few of them for you to fix.
If everything else fails, here are a few ugly hacks that can get you out of dicey situations:
git reset --hard HEADto abort the merge. WARNING: This will delete all your uncommitted local changes.git reset --hard hashOfLastCorrectCommit. A more convenient way of doing this is using the toolgitkthat comes with thegit-guipackage. Usinggitk --allyou get an overview of all your branches and you can right-click on any past commit to "reset [branch-name] to here", which is equivalent to usinggit reset. WARNING: This also changes the history and should only be done to revert local commits that have not been pushed to the online repository.