How do I select a merge strategy for a git rebase?
git, git-rebase
Solution
You can use this with Git v1.7.3 or later versions.
git rebase --strategy-option theirs ${branch} # Long option
git rebase -X theirs ${branch} # Short option
(which is a short for `git rebase --strategy recursive --strategy-option theirs ${branch}` as stated by the documentation)
From Git v1.7.3 Release Notes:
`git rebase --strategy <s>` learned the `--strategy-option`/`-X` option to pass extra options that are understood by the chosen merge strategy.
NB: "Ours" and "theirs" mean the opposite of what they do during a straight merge. In other words, "theirs" favors the commits on the current branch.
Problem
`git-rebase` man page mentions `-X<option>` can be passed to `git-merge`. When/how exactly? I'd like to rebase by applying patches with recursive strategy and theirs option (apply whatever sticks, rather than skipping entire conflicting commits). I don't want merge, I want to make history linear. I've tried: ``` git rebase -Xtheirs ``` and ``` git rebase -s 'recursive -Xtheirs' ``` but git rejects `-X` in both cases. `git rebase -Xtheirs` works in recent versions, except tree conflicts need to be resolved manually. You need to run `git rebase -Xtheirs --continue` (with `-X` repeated) after resolving those conflicts.