From: Julia Evans Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 18:53:19 GMT Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/7] [doc] git-merge: link to new merge conflicts guide Message-ID: <7861e492-6fa4-4768-afdd-65cd346b85be@app.fastmail.com> In-Reply-To: >> WHAT IS A MERGE CONFLICT? >> ------------------------- >> >> When Git merges two commits together, it looks at the changes that >> each side has made and combines those changes. For example, if one side >> edited lines 1-5 of `hello.py` and the other side edited lines 20-25 of >> `hello.py`, then it can easily combine them. > > Some immediate reactions. Thanks, incorporated a few of these ("it marks them as conflicted", "since there's no overlap", "the same file") >> But if both sides edited overlapping lines of the same file (for example >> one side edited lines 1-5 and the other edited lines 3-6), Git will >> not try to guess how to combine those changes. This is called a "merge >> conflict". > > - "cannot guess" would be more direct than "will not try to guess". The way I think about it as a user is that Git takes an intentionally conservative approach and I appreciate the conservatism. Compared to a more aggressive syntax-aware merge system like `mergiraf` which has done merges I don't agree with.