A workflow, not a panic

Conflicts are routine. The right workflow turns them from a stress event into a five-minute task: inspect, decide, edit, verify, continue. This page lays out the discipline.

Step 1: inspect

git status                                # which files conflict
git diff --name-only --diff-filter=U
git log --merge -p path/to/file           # commits unique to each side

--merge shows only commits relevant to the unmerged path on each side, dramatically narrowing the search.

Step 2: choose strategy

Decide per file: keep ours, keep theirs, or merge by hand. For binary files, choose one side wholesale; line-merging makes no sense:

git checkout --theirs assets/logo.png
git add assets/logo.png

Step 3: edit

For text, edit the conflict markers. Configure merge.conflictStyle = zdiff3 (Git 2.35+) to see the ancestor inline. Remove all markers; git diff --check warns about leftovers.

git config --global merge.conflictStyle zdiff3
git diff --check

Step 4: verify

Build and test before staging. Conflicts that compile can still be semantically wrong — review with eyes on full context.

cargo test
git add path/to/file
git status

Step 5: continue

git merge --continue
git rebase --continue
git cherry-pick --continue

Or abort if you got in over your head:

git merge --abort
git rebase --abort

Tools that help

• git mergetool with meld, kdiff3, p4merge, vimdiff, beyond compare, IntelliJ.
• git rerere to replay resolutions on repeated rebases — see "Rerere: automatic conflict resolution reuse".
• git imerge for incremental, bisect-style merging of long-divergent branches.

Patterns

Conflicting whitespace? Try git merge -X ignore-all-space. Repeated changelog conflicts? Mark CHANGELOG.md merge=union in .gitattributes. Lockfile conflicts? Run a custom driver that regenerates them — see "Custom merge strategies and drivers".

Common mistakes

Resolving in the editor without inspecting git log --merge — you miss the why. Committing a half-resolved file because the markers are gone but the logic is wrong. Skipping tests because "it compiles." Force-pushing the result without telling collaborators.

Related

See "Three-way diff and conflict resolution strategies", "Custom merge strategies and drivers", and "Rerere: automatic conflict resolution reuse".