Resolving a Git conflict with binary files

Question

Hi, I've been using Git on Windows (msysgit) to track changes for some design work I've been doing.

Today I've been working on a different PC (brian) and am now trying to merge the edits done today back into my regular local version on my laptop.

On my laptop, I've used 'git pull brian master' to pull the changes into my local version. Everything was fine apart from the main InDesign document - this shows as a conflict.

The version on the PC (brian) is the latest one that I want to keep but I don't know what commands tells the repo to use this one.

I tried directly copying the file across onto my laptop but this seems to break the whole merge process.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

Kev

Answer 1

You have to resolve the conflict manually (copying the file over) and then commit the file (no matter if you copied it over or used the local version) like this

git commit -a -m "Fix merge conflict in test.foo"

Git normally autocommits after merging, but when it detects conflicts it cannot solve by itself, it applies all patches it figured out and leaves the rest for you to resolve and commit manually. The Git Merge Man Page, the Git-SVN Crash Course or this blog entry might shed some light on how it's supposed to work.

Answer 2

I came across a similar problem (wanting to pull a commit that included some binary files which caused conflicts when merged), but came across a different solution that can be done entirely using git (i.e. not having to manually copy files over). I figured I'd include it here so at the very least I can remember it the next time I need it. :) The steps look like this:

% git fetch

This fetches the latest commit(s) from the remote repository (you may need to specify a remote branch name, depending on your setup), but doesn't try to merge them. It records the the commit in FETCH_HEAD

% git checkout FETCH_HEAD stuff/to/update

This takes the copy of the binary files I want and overwrites what's in the working tree with the version fetched from the remote branch. git doesn't try to do any merging, so you just end up with an exact copy of the binary file from the remote branch. Once that's done, you can add/commit the new copy just like normal.

Answer 3

You can also overcame this problem with

git mergetool

which causes git to create local copies of the conflicted binary and spawn your default editor on them:

• {conflicted}.HEAD
• {conflicted}
• {conflicted}.REMOTE

Obviously you can't usefully edit binaries files in a text editor. Instead you copy the new {conflicted}.REMOTE file over {conflicted} without closing the editor. Then when you do close the editor git will see that the undecorated working-copy has been changed and your merge conflict is resolved in the usual way.

Answer 4

To resolve by keeping the version in your current branch (ignore the version from the branch you are merging in), just add and commit the file:

git commit -a

To resolve by overwriting the version in your current branch with the version from the branch you are merging in, you need to retrieve that version into your working directory first, and then add/commit it:

git checkout otherbranch theconflictedfile
git commit -a

Explained in more detail

Answer 5

git checkout accepts a --ours or --theirs option for cases like this. So if you have a merge conflict, and you know you just want the file from the branch you are merging in, you can do:

$ git checkout --theirs -- path/to/conflicted-file.txt

to use that version of the file. Likewise, if you know you want your version (not the one being merged in) you can use

$ git checkout --ours -- path/to/conflicted-file.txt