Re: [PATCH 2/7] [doc] git-merge: link to new merge conflicts guide

From: D. Ben Knoble <ben.knoble@gmail.com>
Date: Sep 25, 2026, 16:36 UTC
Message-ID: <CALnO6CDdoqE2hyZMJg6OZkzNtcnjNXRz=HO4q6cZVpF_wbTXyw@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <a1686a2d82ef9357ecff07c1247092d3dd5ecf95.1790261062.git.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>

Hi Julia,

On Thu, Sep 24, 2026 at 10:46 AM Julia Evans via GitGitGadget <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> From: Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca>
>
> All of the info about merge conflicts has been moved to the new guide

Show 6 quoted lines

> Among the changes made to the common ancestor's version,
> -non-overlapping ones (that is, you changed an area of the file while the
> -other side left that area intact, or vice versa) are incorporated in the
> -final result verbatim.  When both sides made changes to the same area,
> -however, Git cannot randomly pick one side over the other, and asks you to
> -resolve it by leaving what both sides did to that area.

> - * Look at the diffs from each branch. `git log --merge -p <path>`
> -   will show diffs first for the `HEAD` version and then the
> -   `MERGE_HEAD` version.

I think these are both valuable pieces of information we have lost in the new guide (unless I misremember just having read patch 1 :).

The first explains a bit more about what a conflict *is*. Maybe that's old-hat nowadays, but I think it could be nice to keep a statement about why conflicts exist.

The second is a very useful way to get more context to help resolve conflicts! I have an alias "conflict = log --oneline --graph --left-right --boundary --merge" for a similar purpose, and I think the new guide should help folks discover --merge. Often I can get a better sense of how to resolve conflicts by comparing the original changes on each side, or I might at least know who to ask about what to do.

-- 
D. Ben Knoble