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Git Branch Merge


Merge Branches

We have the emergency fix ready, and so let's merge the master and emergency-fix branches.

First, we need to change to the master branch:

Example

git checkout master
Switched to branch 'master'

Now we merge the current branch (master) with emergency-fix:

Example

git merge emergency-fix
Updating 09f4acd..dfa79db
Fast-forward
 index.html | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

Since the emergency-fix branch came directly from master, and no other changes had been made to master while we were working, Git sees this as a continuation of master. So it can "Fast-forward", just pointing both master and emergency-fix to the same commit.

As master and emergency-fix are essentially the same now, we can delete emergency-fix, as it is no longer needed:

Example

git branch -d emergency-fix
Deleted branch emergency-fix (was dfa79db).

Merge Conflict

Now we can move over to hello-world-images and keep working. Add another image file (img_hello_git.jpg) and change index.html, so it shows it:

Example

git checkout hello-world-images
Switched to branch 'hello-world-images'

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello World!</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="bluestyle.css">
</head>
<body>

<h1>Hello world!</h1>
<div><img src="img_hello_world.jpg" alt="Hello World from Space" style="width:100%;max-width:960px"></div>
<p>This is the first file in my new Git Repo.</p>
<p>A new line in our file!</p>
<div><img src="img_hello_git.jpg" alt="Hello Git" style="width:100%;max-width:640px"></div>

</body>
</html>

Now, we are done with our work here and can stage and commit for this branch:

Example

git add --all
git commit -m "added new image"
[hello-world-images 1f1584e] added new image
 2 files changed, 1 insertion(+)
 create mode 100644 img_hello_git.jpg

Now we are ready to merge this hello-world-images into master. But what will happen to the changes we recently made in master?

We see that index.html has been changed in both branches. Now we are ready to merge hello-world-images into master. But what will happen to the changes we recently made in master?

Example

git checkout master
git merge hello-world-images
Auto-merging index.html
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in index.html
Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.

The merge failed, as there is conflict between the versions for index.html. Let us check the status:

Example

git status
On branch master
You have unmerged paths.
  (fix conflicts and run "git commit")
  (use "git merge --abort" to abort the merge)

Changes to be committed:
        new file:   img_hello_git.jpg
        new file:   img_hello_world.jpg

Unmerged paths:
  (use "git add <file>..." to mark resolution)
        both modified:   index.html

This confirms there is a conflict in index.html, but the image files are ready and stagedto be committed.

So we need to fix that conflict. Open the file in our editor:

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello World!</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="bluestyle.css">
</head>
<body>

<h1>Hello world!</h1>
<div><img src="img_hello_world.jpg" alt="Hello World from Space" style="width:100%;max-width:960px"></div>
<p>This is the first file in my new Git Repo.</p>
<<<<<<< HEAD
<p>This line is here to show how merging works.</p>
=======
<p>A new line in our file!</p>
<div><img src="img_hello_git.jpg" alt="Hello Git" style="width:100%;max-width:640px"></div>
>>>>>>> hello-world-images

</body>
</html>

We can see the differences between the versions and edit it like we want:

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello World!</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="bluestyle.css">
</head>
<body>

<h1>Hello world!</h1>
<div><img src="img_hello_world.jpg" alt="Hello World from Space" style="width:100%;max-width:960px"></div>
<p>This is the first file in my new Git Repo.</p>
<p>This line is here to show how merging works.</p>
<div><img src="img_hello_git.jpg" alt="Hello Git" style="width:100%;max-width:640px"></div>

</body>
</html>

Now we can stage index.html and check the status:

Example

git add index.html
git status
On branch master
All conflicts fixed but you are still merging.
  (use "git commit" to conclude merge)

Changes to be committed:
        new file:   img_hello_git.jpg
        new file:   img_hello_world.jpg
        modified:   index.html

The conflict has been fixed, and we can use commit to conclude the merge:

Example

git commit -m "merged with hello-world-images after fixing conflicts"
[master e0b6038] merged with hello-world-images after fixing conflicts

And delete the hello-world-images branch:

Example

git branch -d hello-world-images
Deleted branch hello-world-images (was 1f1584e).

Now you have a better understanding of how branches and merging works. Time to start working with a remote repository!