Conflicts are honesty

A merge conflict feels like something broke. Nothing did. Git found two changes to the same lines on two branches, and it refuses to guess which one you meant. That refusal is the safest thing git does all day.

Git merges line by line. Lines that only one side changed are taken automatically. Git stops only when both sides changed the same stretch, or neighbouring lines with nothing unchanged between them. Then it writes both versions into the file between markers:

<<<<<<< HEAD
apples
=======
pears
>>>>>>> snack

The part above ======= is your current branch (HEAD). The part below is the branch you’re merging in. You edit the file to say what it should say, delete the markers, git add the file to mark it resolved, and commit.

Resolve a real one

On main someone replaced “leaves” with “apples”. On snack someone replaced the same line with “pears”. Merge them and decide.

git init menu && cd menu
printf "bamboo\nleaves\nshoots\n" > menu.txt && git add . && git commit -m menu
git branch snack
sed -i.bak 's/leaves/apples/' menu.txt && git commit -am apples
git switch snack
sed -i.bak 's/leaves/pears/' menu.txt && git commit -am pears
git switch main && git merge snack
cat menu.txt