Resolving conflicts¶

git-conflict-helper.sh is a guided walkthrough, not a magic resolver. It tells you why a conflict probably happened and walks you through fixing it safely.

What it does¶

Confirms you're in a git repo and reports the operation in progress (merge, rebase, or cherry-pick).
Lists every conflicted file with its conflict-marker count.
Walks the common causes, in order, and asks the key question: did you commit or stash before you switched/pulled?
Offers safe per-file actions: keep ours, keep theirs, edit by hand, show the diff, or skip.

git-conflict-helper.sh          # interactive
git-conflict-helper.sh --check  # report only: exit 0 clean, 2 conflicts

The rule set¶

The guide reasons through these causes in order:

1. Same lines edited on both sides¶

Both branches changed the same lines. This is the normal case — pick a winner or combine the two.

2. You didn't commit/stash before switching or pulling¶

Uncommitted edits collide with incoming changes. The fix going forward is a habit: commit or stash before checkout / pull / merge. That's exactly what git-safe-checkout.sh enforces.

3. Your branch is stale (behind the base)¶

The base moved on while you worked. Re-sync:

git fetch origin
git merge origin/<base>      # or: git rebase origin/<base>

4. Edit-vs-delete, or a rename¶

A file was deleted/renamed on one side and edited on the other. git can't auto-merge that — decide whether to keep or remove it.

5. Whitespace / line-ending churn (CRLF vs LF)¶

Whole-file conflicts with no real change usually mean line-ending drift:

git diff --check        # flags whitespace/EOL problems
git config core.autocrlf   # review the setting

Escape hatches¶

If you're in over your head, backing out is always safe:

git merge --abort        # or rebase --abort / cherry-pick --abort

Then re-do the operation from a clean, committed state.

Marking a file resolved¶

After editing a conflicted file to remove the <<<<<<<, =======, >>>>>>> markers:

git add <file>           # marks it resolved
git merge --continue     # or rebase --continue

The helper does the git add for you when you pick ours/theirs or confirm after editing.