# [RFC PATCH] Zooko's merge testcase

2 messages from 2009-01-15 to 2009-01-15. Participants: Miklos Vajna, Johannes Schindelin.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/17185

## Miklos Vajna, 2009-01-15 00:53

Subject: [RFC PATCH] Zooko's merge testcase
Message-ID: <1231980818-24812-1-git-send-email-vmiklos@frugalware.org>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/1231980818-24812-1-git-send-email-vmiklos%40frugalware.org

```
Signed-off-by: Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@frugalware.org>
---

The original page is here:

https://zooko.com/badmerge/simple.html

IIRC it was Robin who mentioned it on IRC.

I obviously not send this patch for inclusion, but to raise a
discussion: if I were a naive user I would think the merge will at least
result in a conflict, however actually it just gaves a wrong result.

 t/t7608-merge-zooko.sh |   88 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 files changed, 88 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100755 t/t7608-merge-zooko.sh

diff --git a/t/t7608-merge-zooko.sh b/t/t7608-merge-zooko.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..32609c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/t7608-merge-zooko.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+test_description='git merge
+
+Testing merge with the examples of Zooko.'
+
+. ./test-lib.sh
+
+#
+# A - D     \
+#   \ B - C - E
+#
+test_expect_success 'setup' '
+	cat <<EOF >file &&
+A
+B
+C
+D
+E
+EOF
+	git add file &&
+	git commit -m A &&
+	git tag A &&
+	cat <<EOF >file &&
+G
+G
+G
+A
+B
+C
+D
+E
+EOF
+	git add file &&
+	git commit -m B &&
+	git tag B &&
+	cat <<EOF >file &&
+A
+B
+C
+D
+E
+G
+G
+G
+A
+B
+C
+D
+E
+EOF
+	git add file &&
+	git commit -m C &&
+	git tag C &&
+	git reset --hard A &&
+	cat <<EOF >file &&
+A
+B
+X
+D
+E
+EOF
+	git add file &&
+	git commit -m D &&
+	git tag D
+'
+
+test_expect_failure 'merge C' '
+	cat <<EOF >expected &&
+A
+B
+C
+D
+E
+G
+G
+G
+A
+B
+X
+D
+E
+EOF
+	git merge C &&
+	test_cmp expected file
+'
+
+test_done
-- 
1.6.1

```

## Johannes Schindelin, 2009-01-15 03:36

Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH] Zooko's merge testcase
Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.1.00.0901150432530.3586@pacific.mpi-cbg.de>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/alpine.DEB.1.00.0901150432530.3586%40pacific.mpi-cbg.de
In-Reply-To: <1231980818-24812-1-git-send-email-vmiklos@frugalware.org>

```
Hi,

On Thu, 15 Jan 2009, Miklos Vajna wrote:

> Signed-off-by: Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@frugalware.org>
> ---

I think the idea can be simplified.  Given lines A, B, C in the base 
commit, one branch _prepending_ the same triplet, and the other branch 
changing the B to a D.

Only this time, nobody has a chance, even Darcs, because from the diff, 
you would not know if it was prepended or appended.

(Which happens to be the same problem as 3-way merge has with the example 
you were implementing; only when looking at the detailed history becomes 
it clear what was done.)

This all just proves again that there can be no perfect merge strategy; 
you'll always have to verify that the right thing was done.

Ciao,
Dscho

```