From: Konstantin Kharlamov Date: Fri, 08 May 2020 13:52:44 GMT Subject: Re: git apply -3 doesn't work Message-ID: In-Reply-To: On 5/8/20 4:47 PM, Phillip Wood wrote: > Hi Konstantin > > On 08/05/2020 11:35, Konstantin Kharlamov wrote: >> As description says. To check that the 3-way merge should actually work subsitute `git apply -3` with `git am -3` in the following steps. This way it works. >> >> # Steps to reproduce >> >>      $ git init >>      Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/foo/.git/ >>      $ echo hello > file1 && git add file1 && git commit -m "initial commit" >>      [master (root-commit) 8334093] initial commit >>       1 file changed, 1 insertion(+) >>       create mode 100644 file1 >>      $ git checkout -b mybranch >>      Switched to a new branch 'mybranch' >>      $ echo bye > file1 && git add file1 && git commit -m "change file1 text" >>      [mybranch 1807900] change file1 text >>       1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) >>      $ git format-patch -1 --stdout > 1.patch >>      $ git checkout master >>      Switched to branch 'master' >>      $ mv file1 file2 >>      $ git add -u && git add file2 && git commit -m "renamed file1 to file2" >>      $ git apply -3 1.patch >>      error: file1: does not exist in index > > Judging from the error message it never gets as far as trying the 3 way merge because it first tries to apply the patch which modifies file1 but file1 does not exist in the index. If it were to try a 3 way merge in this case then on one side of the merge you've modified file1 and on the other side it has been deleted so there would be a merge conflict. The reason 'git am' succeeds is that the rename detection kicks in and so it applies the patch to file2 rather than file1 > > Best Wishes > > Phillip > Thank you. I wonder if it would make sense to `git aplly -3 1.patch` to behave similarly to `git am -3 1.patch && git reset HEAD^` (except without modifying reflog). I.e. so all heuristics `git am` makes use of would also apply to `git apply`