git-merge-file(1) — Linux manual page

NAME \| SYNOPSIS \| DESCRIPTION \| OPTIONS \| EXAMPLES \| GIT \| COLOPHON

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

NAME top

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

SYNOPSIS top

       git merge-file [-L <current-name> [-L <base-name> [-L <other-name>]]]
               [--ours|--theirs|--union] [-p|--stdout] [-q|--quiet] [--marker-size=<n>]
               [--[no-]diff3] [--object-id] <current> <base> <other>

DESCRIPTION top

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

       A conflict occurs if both <current> and <other> 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>, lines from <other>, or lines from both
       respectively. The length of the conflict markers can be given with
       the --marker-size option.

       If --object-id is specified, exactly the same behavior occurs,
       except that instead of specifying what to merge as files, it is
       specified as a list of object IDs referring to blobs.

       The exit value of this program is negative on error, and the
       number of conflicts otherwise (truncated to 127 if there are more
       than that many conflicts). 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 top

       --object-id
           Specify the contents to merge as blobs in the current
           repository instead of files. In this case, the operation must
           take place within a valid repository.

           If the -p option is specified, the merged file (including
           conflicts, if any) goes to standard output as normal;
           otherwise, the merged file is written to the object store and
           the object ID of its blob is written to standard output.

       -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>.

       -q
           Quiet; do not warn about conflicts.

       --diff3
           Show conflicts in "diff3" style.

       --zdiff3
           Show conflicts in "zdiff3" style.

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

       --diff-algorithm={patience|minimal|histogram|myers}
           Use a different diff algorithm while merging. The current
           default is "myers", but selecting more recent algorithm such
           as "histogram" can help avoid mismerges that occur due to
           unimportant matching lines (such as braces from distinct
           functions). See also git-diff(1) --diff-algorithm.

EXAMPLES top

       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.

       git merge-file -L a -L b -L c tmp/a123 tmp/b234 tmp/c345
           merges tmp/a123 and tmp/c345 with the base tmp/b234, but uses
           labels a and c instead of tmp/a123 and tmp/c345.

       git merge-file -p --object-id abc1234 def567 890abcd
           combines the changes of the blob abc1234 and 890abcd since
           def567, tries to merge them and writes the result to standard
           output

GIT top

       Part of the git(1) suite

COLOPHON top

       This page is part of the git (Git distributed version control
       system) project.  Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://git-scm.com/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this manual
       page, see ⟨http://git-scm.com/community⟩.  This page was obtained
       from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/git/git.git⟩ on 2025-08-11.  (At that time,
       the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2025-08-07.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
       a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

Git 2.51.0.rc1                  2025-08-07              GIT-MERGE-FILE(1)

Pages that refer to this page: git(1)