4 The merge API helps a program to reconcile two competing sets of
5 improvements to some files (e.g., unregistered changes from the work
6 tree versus changes involved in switching to a new branch), reporting
7 conflicts if found. The library called through this API is
8 responsible for a few things.
10 * determining which trees to merge (recursive ancestor consolidation);
12 * lining up corresponding files in the trees to be merged (rename
13 detection, subtree shifting), reporting edge cases like add/add
14 and rename/rename conflicts to the user;
16 * performing a three-way merge of corresponding files, taking
17 path-specific merge drivers (specified in `.gitattributes`)
23 * `mmbuffer_t`, `mmfile_t`
25 These store data usable for use by the xdiff backend, for writing and
26 for reading, respectively. See `xdiff/xdiff.h` for the definitions
27 and `diff.c` for examples.
29 * `struct ll_merge_options`
31 This describes the set of options the calling program wants to affect
32 the operation of a low-level (single file) merge. Some options:
35 Behave as though this were part of a merge between common
36 ancestors in a recursive merge.
37 If a helper program is specified by the
38 `[merge "<driver>"] recursive` configuration, it will
39 be used (see linkgit:gitattributes[5]).
42 Resolve local conflicts automatically in favor
43 of one side or the other (as in 'git merge-file'
44 `--ours`/`--theirs`/`--union`). Can be `0`,
45 `XDL_MERGE_FAVOR_OURS`, `XDL_MERGE_FAVOR_THEIRS`, or
46 `XDL_MERGE_FAVOR_UNION`.
49 Resmudge and clean the "base", "theirs" and "ours" files
50 before merging. Use this when the merge is likely to have
51 overlapped with a change in smudge/clean or end-of-line
54 Low-level (single file) merge
55 -----------------------------
59 Perform a three-way single-file merge in core. This is
60 a thin wrapper around `xdl_merge` that takes the path and
61 any merge backend specified in `.gitattributes` or
62 `.git/info/attributes` into account. Returns 0 for a
67 * Prepare a `struct ll_merge_options` to record options.
68 If you have no special requests, skip this and pass `NULL`
69 as the `opts` parameter to use the default options.
71 * Allocate an mmbuffer_t variable for the result.
73 * Allocate and fill variables with the file's original content
74 and two modified versions (using `read_mmfile`, for example).
78 * Read the merged content from `result_buf.ptr` and `result_buf.size`.
80 * Release buffers when finished. A simple
81 `free(ancestor.ptr); free(ours.ptr); free(theirs.ptr);
82 free(result_buf.ptr);` will do.
84 If the modifications do not merge cleanly, `ll_merge` will return a
85 nonzero value and `result_buf` will generally include a description of
86 the conflict bracketed by markers such as the traditional `<<<<<<<`
89 The `ancestor_label`, `our_label`, and `their_label` parameters are
90 used to label the different sides of a conflict if the merge driver
96 Talk about <merge-recursive.h> and merge_file():
98 - merge_trees() to merge with rename detection
99 - merge_recursive() for ancestor consolidation
100 - try_merge_command() for other strategies
104 (Daniel, Miklos, Stephan, JC)