Re: Interpreting git merge failures

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Jul 12, 2011, 06:33 UTC
Message-ID: <20110712063300.GB12491@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <CAKmUPx5Qt2K+7F+BsW3WTmRjodBSrteuyG8p9oRHZuhApTu4+g@mail.gmail.com>

On Thu, Jul 07, 2011 at 11:45:57AM -0700, Scott Bronson wrote:

Show 6 quoted lines

> What is the best way to determine why a git merge failed?
> I'm writing a script that needs to do different things depending
> on what went wrong.
> 
> Right now I'm parsing error messages.  It's obviously a bad
> idea and prone to breakage but it does work.   Example:

Sorry, that's the best you can do with "git merge" currently.

The usual advice would be to check the repo status yourself with plumbing tools, but:

  1. That's a lot of work on the part of a script writer.

  2. It's not atomic. You want to know why a merge failed, but
     circumstances might have changed since the original failure.

It would be nice if "git merge" gave different exit codes for various situations. I don't think it would be all that big a change, and you might be a good person to suggest which conditions need their own exit code, as you are also writing the consuming end of the codes.

Want to write a patch?

-Peff