Git mergetool generates unwanted .orig files

Question

When I do a merge conflict resolution with Kdiff3 (and other merge tool I tried) I noticed that on resolution a `*.orig` file is created. Is there a way for it to not create that extra file?

Accepted Answer

A possible solution from `git config`:

```
git config --global mergetool.keepBackup false
```

After performing a merge, the original file with conflict markers can be saved as a file with a `.orig` extension. If this variable is set to `false` then this file is not preserved. Defaults to `true` (i.e. keep the backup files).

The alternative being not adding or ignoring those files, as suggested in this gitguru article,

`git mergetool` saves the merge-conflict version of the file with a “`.orig`” suffix. Make sure to delete it before adding and committing the merge or add `*.orig` to your `.gitignore`.

Berik suggests in the comments to use:

```
find . -name \*.orig 
find . -name \*.orig -delete
```

Charles Bailey advises in his answer to be aware of internal diff tool settings which could also generate those backup files, no matter what git settings are.

- kdiff3 has its own settings (see "Directory merge" in its manual).

- other tools like WinMerge can have their own backup file extension (WinMerge: `.bak`, as mentioned in its manual).

So you need to reset those settings as well.

Git mergetool generates unwanted .orig files

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