[thirdparty/git.git] / Documentation / merge-strategies.txt

MERGE STRATEGIES
----------------

resolve::
	This can only resolve two heads (i.e. the current branch
	and another branch you pulled from) using 3-way merge
	algorithm.  It tries to carefully detect criss-cross
	merge ambiguities and is considered generally safe and
	fast.

recursive::
	This can only resolve two heads using 3-way merge
	algorithm.  When there are more than one common
	ancestors that can be used for 3-way merge, it creates a
	merged tree of the common ancestors and uses that as
	the reference tree for the 3-way merge.  This has been
	reported to result in fewer merge conflicts without
	causing mis-merges by tests done on actual merge commits
	taken from Linux 2.6 kernel development history.
	Additionally this can detect and handle merges involving
	renames.  This is the default merge strategy when
	pulling or merging one branch.

octopus::
	This resolves more than two-head case, but refuses to do
	complex merge that needs manual resolution.  It is
	primarily meant to be used for bundling topic branch
	heads together.  This is the default merge strategy when
	pulling or merging more than one branches.

ours::
	This resolves any number of heads, but the result of the
	merge is always the current branch head.  It is meant to
	be used to supersede old development history of side
	branches.
Commit	Line	Data
bb73d73c JL	1	MERGE STRATEGIES
	2	----------------
	3
	4	resolve::
	5	This can only resolve two heads (i.e. the current branch
	6	and another branch you pulled from) using 3-way merge
	7	algorithm. It tries to carefully detect criss-cross
	8	merge ambiguities and is considered generally safe and
9688a882	9	fast.
bb73d73c JL	10
	11	recursive::
	12	This can only resolve two heads using 3-way merge
	13	algorithm. When there are more than one common
	14	ancestors that can be used for 3-way merge, it creates a
9688a882	15	merged tree of the common ancestors and uses that as
bb73d73c JL	16	the reference tree for the 3-way merge. This has been
	17	reported to result in fewer merge conflicts without
	18	causing mis-merges by tests done on actual merge commits
	19	taken from Linux 2.6 kernel development history.
	20	Additionally this can detect and handle merges involving
9688a882 JH	21	renames. This is the default merge strategy when
9688a882 JH	22	pulling or merging one branch.
bb73d73c JL	23
	24	octopus::
	25	This resolves more than two-head case, but refuses to do
	26	complex merge that needs manual resolution. It is
	27	primarily meant to be used for bundling topic branch
	28	heads together. This is the default merge strategy when
9688a882	29	pulling or merging more than one branches.
bb73d73c JL	30
	31	ours::
	32	This resolves any number of heads, but the result of the
	33	merge is always the current branch head. It is meant to
	34	be used to supersede old development history of side
	35	branches.