How do I resolve merge conflicts in a Git repository?

Question

How do I resolve merge conflicts in my Git repository?

Accepted Answer

Try:

```
git mergetool
```

It opens a GUI that steps you through each conflict, and you get to choose how to merge. Sometimes it requires a bit of hand editing afterwards, but usually it's enough by itself. It is much better than doing the whole thing by hand certainly.

As per Josh Glover's comment:

[This command] doesn't necessarily open a GUI unless you install one. Running `git mergetool` for me resulted in `vimdiff` being used. You can install one of the following tools to use it instead: `meld`, `opendiff`, `kdiff3`, `tkdiff`, `xxdiff`, `tortoisemerge`, `gvimdiff`, `diffuse`, `ecmerge`, `p4merge`, `araxis`, `vimdiff`, `emerge`.

Below is a sample procedure using `vimdiff` to resolve merge conflicts, based on this link.

Run the following commands in your terminal

```
git config merge.tool vimdiff
git config merge.conflictstyle diff3
git config mergetool.prompt false
```

This will set `vimdiff` as the default merge tool.

Run the following command in your terminal

```
git mergetool
```

You will see a `vimdiff` display in the following format:

```
  ╔═══════╦══════╦════════╗
  ║       ║      ║        ║
  ║ LOCAL ║ BASE ║ REMOTE ║
  ║       ║      ║        ║
  ╠═══════╩══════╩════════╣
  ║                       ║
  ║        MERGED         ║
  ║                       ║
  ╚═══════════════════════╝
```

These 4 views are

- LOCAL: this is the file from the current branch

- BASE: the common ancestor, how this file looked before both changes

- REMOTE: the file you are merging into your branch

- MERGED: the merge result; this is what gets saved in the merge commit and used in the future

You can navigate among these views using ctrl+w. You can directly reach the MERGED view using ctrl+w followed by j.

More information about `vimdiff` navigation is here and here.

You can edit the MERGED view like this:

If you want to get changes from REMOTE

```
:diffg RE
```

If you want to get changes from BASE

```
:diffg BA
```

If you want to get changes from LOCAL

```
:diffg LO
```

Save, Exit, Commit, and Clean up

`:wqa` save and exit from vi

`git commit -m "message"`

`git clean` Remove extra files (e.g. `*.orig`). Warning: It will remove all untracked files, if you won't pass any arguments.

How do I resolve merge conflicts in a Git repository?

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