Hello Jim,
> > - Did "git pull". It told me:
>
> Then (everything is committed), you switch to the trunk and pull
> (update from public repo) from there:
>
> git checkout master
> git pull
>
> then go back to your branch and use git-rebase to make your branch
> change set(s) apply cleanly to the new tip of the trunk:
>
> git checkout branch-B
> git rebase master
>
> The rebase is where you'll resolve any conflicts.
OK, then my problem was that I did "git pull" without a rebase step.
Remember that I don't like to use "git checkout", because I want to memoize
my working topic by directory name, and not have git modify my source files
unnecessarily when I have built object files in the same directory.
In this situation, I wanted to use "git pull" just to update my changes
and let me reduce conflicts. This is not the moment where I want to start
bookkeeping (adding files, thinking about a commit message etc.)
$ git checkout master
M ChangeLog
Already on branch "master"
$ git pull
Updating 61135ee..0f0eb9b
ChangeLog: needs update
fatal: Entry 'ChangeLog' not uptodate. Cannot merge.
$ git rebase master
ChangeLog: needs update
What am I supposed to do here?
- "git fetch" does too not enough: it only fetches changes but does not
store them in my "master" branch.
- "git rebase master" without "git add" does nothing;
"git rebase master" after "git add" tells me
"Current branch master is up to date.".
- "git pull" after "git add" forces me to do conflict resolution and
creates a diamond commit.
> > Here's what I did:
> > - Created some modifications to the ChangeLog and other files.
>
> First off, it's best to make local changes on a branch,
> and to commit them there.
What happens then? Let's try it.
- Take a git checkout from two hours ago.
- "git checkout -b private"
- Created some modifications to the ChangeLog and other files.
- git add ChangeLog
- git commit
- "git rebase master" tells me: Current branch private is up to date.
- "git pull" fetches some changes into the repository but then says
Warning: No merge candidate found because value of config option
"branch.private.merge" does not match any remote branch fetched.
- "git-config branch.private.merge refs/heads/master"
- "git pull" then tells me:
Auto-merged ChangeLog
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in ChangeLog
Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.
- So I resolve the conflict in ChangeLog.
- git add ChangeLog
- git commit
- git rebase master
works fine without a human interaction!
So, in summary:
* People who don't want to switch branches in a directory should, right after
cloning, do
git checkout -b private
git-config branch.private.merge refs/heads/master
This enables "git pull" to do merges, which it refuses to do if you're on
the "master" branch.
* Without "git add" and "git commit", git never does merges, fearing to
destroy your working file.
* In such a situation, it's the "git pull" where the conflict resolution
happens; the "git rebase master" then works unattended.
Right?
Bruno
