NAME

       git-merge-file - Run a three-way file merge

SYNOPSIS

       git merge-file [-L <current-name> [-L <base-name> [-L <other-name>]]]
               [--ours|--theirs|--union] [-p|--stdout] [-q|--quiet] [--marker-size=<n>]
               [--[no-]diff3] <current-file> <base-file> <other-file>

DESCRIPTION

       git merge-file incorporates all changes that lead from the <base-file> to <other-file>
       into <current-file>. The result ordinarily goes into <current-file>. git merge-file is
       useful for combining separate changes to an original. Suppose <base-file> is the original,
       and both <current-file> and <other-file> are modifications of <base-file>, then git
       merge-file combines both changes.

       A conflict occurs if both <current-file> and <other-file> have changes in a common segment
       of lines. If a conflict is found, git merge-file normally outputs a warning and brackets
       the conflict with lines containing <<<<<<< and >>>>>>> markers. A typical conflict will
       look like this:

           <<<<<<< A
           lines in file A
           =======
           lines in file B
           >>>>>>> B

       If there are conflicts, the user should edit the result and delete one of the
       alternatives. When --ours, --theirs, or --union option is in effect, however, these
       conflicts are resolved favouring lines from <current-file>, lines from <other-file>, or
       lines from both respectively. The length of the conflict markers can be given with the
       --marker-size option.

       The exit value of this program is negative on error, and the number of conflicts otherwise
       (truncated to 127 if there are more than that many conflicts). If the merge was clean, the
       exit value is 0.

       git merge-file is designed to be a minimal clone of RCS merge; that is, it implements all
       of RCS merge's functionality which is needed by git(1).

OPTIONS

       -L <label>
           This option may be given up to three times, and specifies labels to be used in place
           of the corresponding file names in conflict reports. That is, git merge-file -L x -L y
           -L z a b c generates output that looks like it came from files x, y and z instead of
           from files a, b and c.

       -p
           Send results to standard output instead of overwriting <current-file>.

       -q
           Quiet; do not warn about conflicts.

       --diff3
           Show conflicts in "diff3" style.

       --zdiff3
           Show conflicts in "zdiff3" style.

       --ours, --theirs, --union
           Instead of leaving conflicts in the file, resolve conflicts favouring our (or their or
           both) side of the lines.

EXAMPLES

       git merge-file README.my README README.upstream
           combines the changes of README.my and README.upstream since README, tries to merge
           them and writes the result into README.my.

       git merge-file -L a -L b -L c tmp/a123 tmp/b234 tmp/c345
           merges tmp/a123 and tmp/c345 with the base tmp/b234, but uses labels a and c instead
           of tmp/a123 and tmp/c345.

GIT

       Part of the git(1) suite