Re: Problem resolving an octopus merge conflict

From: Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
Date: Jan 11, 2006, 08:33 UTC
Message-ID: <7virsrupsz.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>
In-Reply-To: <BAYC1-PASMTP1241F00474C3FC5C32F7A6AE240@CEZ.ICE>

"Sean" <seanlkml@sympatico.ca> writes:

> After fixing this up though, git-commit won't see this as a merge commit
> and won't add the proper parent linkages.   I'm not sure at this point
> what the proper fix should be or if this is just pilot error.

Not a pilot error, and we do not make it explicit enough, but git-merge-octopus has this comment:

	echo "Simple merge did not work, trying automatic merge."
	git-merge-index -o git-merge-one-file -a ||
	exit 2 ; # Automatic merge failed; should not be doing Octopus

If you need to manually fix up such a merge, that is a sure sign that the branches you merged into an Octopus was not independent bunches after all. Letting such a commit to be made defeats the point of an Octopus, which is to bundle independent tracks of development.

This is more philosophical rather than technical, and may look being unhelpful to you (who wanted to create an Octopus), but is done to help people who later needs to deal with such a merge history.