Handling Merge Conflicts

Issue

• Some one on your project has merged a Pull Request into the main branch.
• You push your code to your remote branch named branch_name and open a Pull Request to the main branch.
• GitHub informs you your code can not automaticly merge into the main branch.

Step by Step Solution

1. Navigate to the root of your project in your shell (the command line).

• $ cd /path/to/your/project

1. Make sure you are on the correct branch.

• $ git branch
  git will list local branches and put a * in front of the branch you are in

1. Make sure you have notthing to commit. If you have un-commited changes, commit them.

• $ git status
  nothing to commit, working directory clean

1. Update local copy of origin repository

• $ git fetch origin

1. Merge local copy of origin/main into your local branch called branch_name.

• $ git merge origin/main
  git will tell you what files have failed to automaticly merge

1. Open each file with conflicts in your text editor.
2. Find the conflicting changes.

• Look for <<< HEAD, ====, and >>> main
• These are called “merge markers”

1. Merge the changes together, so the code has exactly what you want it to have.

• Delete the lines that say <<< HEAD, ====, and >>> main
• Delete any unneeded lines from main or your branch_name.

<<<<<<<<<<< HEAD
   this is where the conflicting code from your branch is
 ===========

   this is where the conflicting code from the main branch is
 >>>>>>>>>>> main

1. RUN YOUR CODE.

• This is possibly the most important step!
• Just becuse you “handled” your merge conflict does not mean your haven’t broken your app.
• Make any other needed changes to get everything working correctly

1. Add your changes and commit.

• $ git add .
• $ git commit -m "handled merge conflict from main"

1. Push to your branch_name on origin.

• $ git push origin branch_name

1. Your Pull Request should be able to merge!