Resolve merge conflicts in Visual Studio
When you merge one branch into another, file changes from commits in one branch can conflict with the changes in the other. Git attempts to resolve these changes by using the history in your repo to determine what the merged files should look like. When it isn't clear how to merge changes, Git halts the merge and tells you which files conflict.
Understand merge conflicts
The following image shows a very basic example of how changes conflict in Git. Both the main and bugfix branch make updates to the same lines of source code.
If you try to merge the bugfix branch into main, Git can't determine which changes to use in the merged version. You may want to keep the changes in the main branch, the bugfix branch, or some combination of the two. Resolve this conflict with a merge commit on the main branch that reconciles the conflicting changes between the two branches.
The most common merge conflict situation is when you pull updates from a remote branch to your local branch, for example from origin/bugfix into your local bugfix branch. Resolve these conflicts in the same way - create a merge commit on your local branch reconciling the changes and complete the merge.
Prevent merge conflicts
Git is very good at automatically merging file changes in most circumstances, provided that the file contents don't change dramatically between commits. Consider rebasing branches before you open up a pull request if your branch is far behind your main branch. Rebased branches will merge into your main branch without conflicts.
Resolve merge conflicts
If you are collaborating with others on the same branch, you might also get merge conflicts when you push your changes.
When you push your changes, Visual Studio detects if the local branch you've been working on is behind its remote tracking branch and then gives you a number of options to choose from.
Note
You can enable Force Push if your remote repository supports it by enabling it through Git > Settings.
Let’s choose to Pull then Push to include changes introduced to the remote repository. If there are any merge conflict(s) when pulling changes or attempting to merge two branches, Visual Studio lets us know in the Git Changes window, the Git repository window and on any documents with conflicts.
The Git Changes window shows a list of documents with conflicts under Unmerged Changes. To start resolving conflicts, you can double-click on the document you would like to resolve or if you have a document with conflicts opened in the editor, you can select Open Merge Editor.
After you get the Merge Editor open, you can start resolving your conflict by using any of the following methods (as depicted in the numbered screenshot).
- Go over your conflicts line by line and choose between keeping the right or the left side by checking the checkboxes.
- Keep or ignore all of your conflicting changes.
- Manually edit your code in the Result window.
Tip
If you don’t like the Merge Editor default layout, feel free to change it by using the gear dropdown menu.
For example, the following screenshot shows what the Vertical View looks like:
When you're done resolving the merge conflicts, select Accept Merge. Repeat this for all conflicting files.
Use the Git Changes window to create a merge commit and resolve the conflict.
Note
If you need to keep all of your changes to a document, you can right-click it under the Unmerged Changes section and select Keep Current (Local) without having to open the Merge Editor.
Next steps
To continue your journey, use the following link to learn more about merge and merge conflicts Git merge and resolving conflicts.