Merging and Managing Branches
This post in the series looks at merging, resolving merge conflicts, and managing branches.
Series Outline
- Setup
- Getting Latest and Making Changes
- Pushing, Fetching, and Viewing History
- Merging and Managing Branches
- Stashes and Reverting Work
- Miscellaneous / Wrap-up
Merging in Changes from Others
Once I’ve got an idea of what I’ll be pulling down and I feel comfortable with it, I then pull those.C:\source\myproject [develop ↓3]> git pull
Updating 5ddb7ac..4248d29
Fast-forward
.../Infrastructure/Net/INetUtility.cs | 22 ++++
.../Infrastructure/Net/NetUtility.cs | 86 ++++++++++++++
.../Company.MyApp.API.csproj | 2 +
Company.MyApp/DI/NetworkModule.cs | 3 +
.../Resources/en-US/Resources.resw | 2 +-
.../Authentications/DeviceRegistrationViewModel.cs | 124 +++++++++------------
6 files changed, 165 insertions(+), 74 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 Company.MyApp.API/Infrastructure/Net/INetUtility.cs
create mode 100644 Company.MyApp.API/Infrastructure/Net/NetUtility.cs
Before merging at first, I could never remember whether I needed to be in the source branch or destination branch. The answer was checking out the destination (git checkout Feature/GuestId) and then merging from source (git merge develop).
C:\source\myproject [develop ≡]> git checkout Feature/GuestId… and then the merge.
Switched to branch 'Feature/GuestId'
Your branch is ahead of 'origin/Feature/GuestId' by 1 commit.
C:\source\myproject [Feature/GuestId ↑1]> git merge developIt was amazing to me how often it just worked without merge conflicts like magic – much better than say TFS which would constantly choke on XML files for example.
Auto-merging Company.MyApp.API/Company.MyApp.API.csproj
Merge made by the 'recursive' strategy.
.../Infrastructure/Net/INetUtility.cs | 22 ++++
.../Infrastructure/Net/NetUtility.cs | 86 ++++++++++++++
.../Company.MyApp.API.csproj | 2 +
Company.MyApp/DI/NetworkModule.cs | 3 +
.../Resources/en-US/Resources.resw | 2 +-
.../Authentications/DeviceRegistrationViewModel.cs | 124 +++++++++------------
6 files changed, 165 insertions(+), 74 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 Company.MyApp.API/Infrastructure/Net/INetUtility.cs
create mode 100644 Company.MyApp.API/Infrastructure/Net/NetUtility.cs
Resolving a Merge Conflict
Eventually a merge gave me a nastygram about a conflict. Runninggit status then showed this output.C:\source\myproject [Feature/GuestId ↑18 +0 ~0 -0 !1 | +0 ~0 -0 !1 !]> git status
On branch Feature/GuestId
Your branch is ahead of 'origin/Feature/GuestId' by 18 commits.
(use "git push" to publish your local commits)
You have unmerged paths.
(fix conflicts and run "git commit")
(use "git merge --abort" to abort the merge)
Unmerged paths:
(use "git add <file>..." to mark resolution)
both modified: Readme.txt
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")
Note the !1 in posh-git status showing one conflict and Git’s message about fixing conflicts before committing.
git mergetool to be acceptable. Running that generates output such as:C:\source\myproject [Feature/GuestId ↑18 +0 ~0 -0 !1 | +0 ~0 -0 !1 !]> git mergetool
Merging:
Readme.txt
Normal merge conflict for 'Readme.txt':
{local}: modified file
{remote}: modified file
Now DiffMerge pops up showing me how many manual conflicts I’ll need to resolve in the file and then after dismissing the modal I can cycle through them with the highlighted conflict buttons.
Next I take action on each conflict.
Once all conflicts have been addressed, I save the file and close the merge tool.
git status tells me more.C:\source\myproject [Feature/GuestId ↑18 +0 ~1 -0 | +1 ~0 -0 !]> git status
On branch Feature/GuestId
Your branch is ahead of 'origin/Feature/GuestId' by 18 commits.
(use "git push" to publish your local commits)
All conflicts fixed but you are still merging.
(use "git commit" to conclude merge)
Changes to be committed:
modified: Readme.txt
Untracked files:
(use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
Readme.txt.orig
Output indicates “All conflicts fixed but you are still merging” and !1 went away in the posh-git status indicator showing me there are now no conflicts.
Note in the above output the Readme.txt.orig file. At that time I didn’t have mergetool.keepBackup set to false so I removed it with del readme.txt.orig. One fix could be adding .orig to the git ignore file though the working directory would eventually get cluttered. I ended up setting this at the command line with git config --global mergetool.keepBackup false to prevent in the future (already set this way now in Part 1 Setup of this series).
At this point the conflicts are resolved so I might issue git commit -m 'Resolved Readme conflict'; git push. With the semicolon both these commands can be executed in one line, saving a little bit of time.
Listing Branches
Listing Local Branches
Runninggit branch by itself lists all local branches and indicates which is current with ‘*’ and colorized output.C:\source\myproject [develop ≡]> git branch
FakeNews
Feature/AppSettings
Feature/CheckForNewVersion
Feature/DeviceAdd
Feature/LoadSession
Feature/GuestId
* develop
master
Specific local branches can be searched for using --list with a pattern.
C:\source\myproject [develop ≡]> git branch --list fix/*
fix/LoginIssue
Listing Remote Branches
In addition to more verbose local/remote tracking info shown bygit remote show origin, using git branch -r provides a more straightforward view of remote branches.C:\source\myproject [develop ≡]> git branch -r origin/Feature/AppWillPersistRules origin/Feature/LoadSession origin/Fix/TestHarnessCanCrash origin/HEAD -> origin/master origin/develop origin/master origin/prototype/AndroidI’ve not had a use for it yet but there’s also
git ls-remote with more detailed remote info.Deleting Local Branches
Git branches are so lightweight that deleting them doesn’t gain much from a disk space / resource perspective. However when viewing a list of your branches / managing branches it can clutter things up to have a bunch of old branches. Once feature branches are merged into develop or master, the commit history will be there so keeping them around doesn’t gain much.Deleting Specific Branches
Usinggit branch -d branchName will delete the specified branch. If a branch contains unmerged changes Git will present an error and require -D to be used to explicitly confirm deletion with risk of losing commits.C:\source\myproject [develop ≡]> git branch -d FakeNews
Deleted branch FakeNews (was d598a79). C:\source\myproject [develop ≡]> git branch -d Feature/GuestId
error: The branch 'Feature/GuestId' is not fully merged.
If you are sure you want to delete it, run 'git branch -D Feature/GuestId'.
Deleting All Merged Branches
Rather than delete a la carte, the below PowerShell function will delete all merged branches, excluding develop and master. I put this in my PowerShell profile but it could probably be used in alias form if desired.
function Remove-MergedBranches
{
git branch --merged | %{$_.trim()} | ?{$_ -notmatch 'develop' -and $_ -notmatch 'master'} | %{git branch -d $_}
}
C:\source\myproject [develop ≡]> remove-mergedbranches Deleted branch Feature/AppSuspendResume (was f20f2ef). Deleted branch Feature/AppWillPersistRules (was 8095ecd). Deleted branch Feature/FinishRelatedMenuItemEntity (was 5a43bfc). Deleted branch Feature/GuestId (was aae9719). Deleted branch Feature/LoadSession (was 06ae322). error: branch '* Feature/NoMatchFound' not found. Deleted branch fix/AppCrashSession (was 6cd2721).