Reference Guide: Merge conflicts

Welcome back to the Reference Guide series.

Merging is the act of integrating code changes from another branch into a working branch. With 'Git', there are times when competing changes cannot be resolved without intervention. Conflicts can occur when someone edits a file and someone else deletes the same file, or, when changes are made to the same line of the same file.

Merge conflicts can be a bit intimidating at first but rest assured they won't be for long. After a little practice, you'll be a pro in no time.

RESOLVE MERGE CONFLICTS

Once changes have been pushed to the branch name it’s a good practice to follow a few more steps to resolve potential conflicts before making a pull request in GitHub.

• git pull origin master
  • This command updates the local branch to match the master branch.

Open a code editor of choice to review changes or conflicts. Generally, current changes will be highlighted in one color and incoming changes will be highlighted in a different color. Accept the current or incoming changes. Once completed run the following commands:

• git status
• git add –A
• git status
• git commit –m “add comment description of changes made”
• git status
• git push origin <name of branch>

Up next: Pull Requests

For the completed Reference Guide Series:

• Part One: Reference Guide: Common Commands for Terminal.
• Part two: Create a GitHub Repository
• Part three: Committing Changes
• Part four: Committing Changes with Branches -Part five: Merge Conflicts
• Part six: Pull Requests
• Part seven: Conducting a Code Review -Part eight: Complete and Merge a Pull Request