Re: [PATCH 4/4] doc: git-pull: clarify how to exit a conflicted merge

From: D. Ben Knoble <ben.knoble@gmail.com>
Date: Sep 24, 2025, 20:29 UTC
Message-ID: <CALnO6CDpduG3UNMAPCBx8+du1k8Af6A-=kxhRuzooyQn8mZhzg@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <c7f09c2bd32baf9e1dda355656bba811484e90a0.1758656702.git.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>

On Tue, Sep 23, 2025 at 3:48 PM Julia Evans via GitGitGadget <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 9 quoted lines

>
> From: Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca>
>
> From user feedback:
>
> - One user is confused about why `git reset --merge`
>   (why not just `git reset`?). Handle this by mentioning
>   `git merge --abort` and `git reset --abort` instead, which have a
>   more obvious meaning.

"git reset --merge" _can_ be helpful when merging, but won't fully abort a rebase. Great.

Show 18 quoted lines

> --- a/Documentation/git-pull.adoc
> +++ b/Documentation/git-pull.adoc
> @@ -30,15 +30,9 @@ branch. There are 4 main options for integrating the remote branch:
>  You can also set the configuration options `pull.rebase`, `pull.squash`,
>  or `pull.ff` with your preferred behaviour.
>
> -In Git 1.7.0 or later, to cancel a conflicting merge, use
> -`git reset --merge`.  *Warning*: In older versions of Git, running 'git pull'
> -with uncommitted changes is discouraged: while possible, it leaves you
> -in a state that may be hard to back out of in the case of a conflict.
> -
> -If any of the remote changes overlap with local uncommitted changes,
> -the merge will be automatically canceled and the work tree untouched.
> -It is generally best to get any local changes in working order before
> -pulling or stash them away with linkgit:git-stash[1].
> +If there's a merge conflict during the merge or rebase that you don't
> +want to handle, you can safely abort it with `git merge --abort` or `git
> +--rebase abort`.

This information is also mentioned in the advice given by conflicts (and git status), so while I originally wondered if we need to say "to know which to use, run…", I now think we can trust users to know whether they asked for a merge or rebase and read the advice/git status output when they don't.

Hah, just kidding. Nobody* reads that output. But I still don't think it's worth muddying here, because the same folks are unlikely to see the help here, right? Or maybe we say "Information in `git status` will summarize these options for you." ?

[*] Obviously untrue, but you all know what I mean

-- 
D. Ben Knoble