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GIT-MERGE-FILE(1)                                     Git Manual                                    GIT-MERGE-FILE(1)



NAME
       git-merge-file - Run a three-way file merge

SYNOPSIS
       git merge-file [-L <current-name> [-L <base-name> [-L <other-name>]]]
               [--ours|--theirs|--union] [-p|--stdout] [-q|--quiet] [--marker-size=<n>]
               <current-file> <base-file> <other-file>


DESCRIPTION
       git merge-file incorporates all changes that lead from the <base-file> to <other-file> into <current-file>.
       The result ordinarily goes into <current-file>. git merge-file is useful for combining separate changes to an
       original. Suppose <base-file> is the original, and both <current-file> and <other-file> are modifications of
       <base-file>, then git merge-file combines both changes.

       A conflict occurs if both <current-file> and <other-file> have changes in a common segment of lines. If a
       conflict is found, git merge-file normally outputs a warning and brackets the conflict with lines containing
       <<<<<<< and >>>>>>> markers. A typical conflict will look like this:

           <<<<<<< A
           lines in file A
           =======
           lines in file B
           >>>>>>> B

       If there are conflicts, the user should edit the result and delete one of the alternatives. When --ours,
       --theirs, or --union option is in effect, however, these conflicts are resolved favouring lines from
       <current-file>, lines from <other-file>, or lines from both respectively. The length of the conflict markers
       can be given with the --marker-size option.

       The exit value of this program is negative on error, and the number of conflicts otherwise. If the merge was
       clean, the exit value is 0.

       git merge-file is designed to be a minimal clone of RCS merge; that is, it implements all of RCS merge's
       functionality which is needed by git(1).

OPTIONS
       -L <label>
           This option may be given up to three times, and specifies labels to be used in place of the corresponding
           file names in conflict reports. That is, git merge-file -L x -L y -L z a b c generates output that looks
           like it came from files x, y and z instead of from files a, b and c.

       -p
           Send results to standard output instead of overwriting <current-file>.

       -q
           Quiet; do not warn about conflicts.

       --ours, --theirs, --union
           Instead of leaving conflicts in the file, resolve conflicts favouring our (or their or both) side of the
           lines.

EXAMPLES
       git merge-file README.my README README.upstream
           combines the changes of README.my and README.upstream since README, tries to merge them and writes the
           result into README.my.