Git – Msys Git Merge Tool Command Options Issue

batch-filegitmergeversion control

I'm using msys Git for source control on a Windows machine and I'm trying to figure out how to get my merge tool, WinMerge, to work with Git.

I've followed the instructions on this blog to the best of my ability since it's the closest I've found to what I'm trying to do. Basically what I did was:

Modify my .gitconfig file to include the following:

[merge]
    tool = winmerge

[mergetool "winmerge"]
    cmd = \"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\WinMerge\\WinMergeU.exe\" "$PWD/$LOCAL" "$PWD/$REMOTE" "$PWD/$MERGED"  
        trustExitCode = false  
    keepBackup = false

This is almost working. When I try to run the merge tool from Git, WinMerge gives me an error saying it can't find the paths of the files, which makes complete sense since the paths it is looking for are:

C:\MY\WORKING\DIRECTORY\-e
C:\MY\WORKING\DIRECTORY\-ub

It looks like Git is passing options into the merge tool instead of the local & remote file names that I would expect to get passed if everything was working correctly.

I've searched online for Git's merge documentation, but I can't seem to find anything related to what I'm trying to do. My guess is that the solution will be one of the following:

Change the $LOCAL & $REMOTE variables to the correct values, assuming $LOCAL & $REMOTE are incorrect.
Write a .bat script to call WinMergeU, and handle the arguments Git sends to the merge tool within the logic of my .bat script.

Best Answer

If you look at the file that is conflicted, you'll notice the standard Theirs >>>>>>> and <<<<<< Mine markers. WinMerge understands these as merge conflicts, so it does not need 'Theirs' and 'Mine' to be specified explicitly; it just needs to be told which file it is that has the conflict markers.

We know the file in the working directory contains the markers.
It makes sense that the file we are merging to will also be this file - we also know that git mergetool makes the $MERGED variable available that names that file.
```
[mergetool "winmerge"]
    cmd = 'C:/Program Files/WinMerge/WinMergeU.exe' \"$MERGED\"
```

This is all you need to hook git up with WinMerge for merge/conflict resolution; no scripts or command-line switches needed. Refer to the 3rd command-line form in the docs (linked by the OP, above) and the explanation of conflictfile argument.

Related Solutions

Git – Do a “git export” (like “svn export”)

Probably the simplest way to achieve this is with git archive. If you really need just the expanded tree you can do something like this.

git archive master | tar -x -C /somewhere/else

Most of the time that I need to 'export' something from git, I want a compressed archive in any case so I do something like this.

git archive master | bzip2 >source-tree.tar.bz2

ZIP archive:

git archive --format zip --output /full/path/to/zipfile.zip master

git help archive for more details, it's quite flexible.

Be aware that even though the archive will not contain the .git directory, it will, however, contain other hidden git-specific files like .gitignore, .gitattributes, etc. If you don't want them in the archive, make sure you use the export-ignore attribute in a .gitattributes file and commit this before doing your archive. Read more...

Note: If you are interested in exporting the index, the command is

git checkout-index -a -f --prefix=/destination/path/

(See Greg's answer for more details)

Git – How to resolve merge conflicts in a Git repository

Try: git mergetool

It opens a GUI that steps you through each conflict, and you get to choose how to merge. Sometimes it requires a bit of hand editing afterwards, but usually it's enough by itself. It is much better than doing the whole thing by hand certainly.

As per Josh Glover's comment:

The command

doesn't necessarily open a GUI unless you install one. Running git mergetool for me resulted in vimdiff being used. You can install one of the following tools to use it instead: meld, opendiff, kdiff3, tkdiff, xxdiff, tortoisemerge, gvimdiff, diffuse, ecmerge, p4merge, araxis, vimdiff, emerge.

Below is the sample procedure to use vimdiff for resolve merge conflicts. Based on this link

Step 1: Run following commands in your terminal

git config merge.tool vimdiff
git config merge.conflictstyle diff3
git config mergetool.prompt false

This will set vimdiff as the default merge tool.

Step 2: Run following command in terminal

git mergetool

Step 3: You will see a vimdiff display in following format

  ╔═══════╦══════╦════════╗
  ║       ║      ║        ║
  ║ LOCAL ║ BASE ║ REMOTE ║
  ║       ║      ║        ║
  ╠═══════╩══════╩════════╣
  ║                       ║
  ║        MERGED         ║
  ║                       ║
  ╚═══════════════════════╝

These 4 views are

LOCAL – this is file from the current branch

BASE – common ancestor, how file looked before both changes

REMOTE – file you are merging into your branch

MERGED – merge result, this is what gets saved in the repo

You can navigate among these views using ctrl+w. You can directly reach MERGED view using ctrl+w followed by j.

More information about vimdiff navigation is here and here.

Step 4. You could edit the MERGED view the following way

If you want to get changes from REMOTE

:diffg RE

If you want to get changes from BASE

:diffg BA

If you want to get changes from LOCAL

:diffg LO

Step 5. Save, Exit, Commit and Clean up

:wqa save and exit from vi

git commit -m "message"

git clean Remove extra files (e.g. *.orig) created by diff tool.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Git – Do a “git export” (like “svn export”)

Git – How to resolve merge conflicts in a Git repository

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