Resolving a Git conflict with binary files

Question

I ve been using Git on Windows  msysgit  to track changes for some design work I ve been doing   Today I ve been working on a different PC  with remote repo brian  and I m now trying to merge the edits done today back into my regular local version on my laptop   On my laptop  I ve used git pull brian master to pull the changes into my local version  Everything was fine apart from the main InDesign document - this shows as a conflict   The version on the PC  brian  is the latest one that I want to keep but I don t know what commands tells the repo to use this one    I tried directly copying the file across onto my laptop but this seems to break the whole merge process   Can anyone point me in the right direction

User · Answer

You can also overcome this problem with

git mergetool

which causes git to create local copies of the conflicted binary and spawn your default editor on them:

{conflicted}.HEAD
{conflicted}
{conflicted}.REMOTE

Obviously you can't usefully edit binaries files in a text editor. Instead you copy the new {conflicted}.REMOTE file over {conflicted} without closing the editor. Then when you do close the editor git will see that the undecorated working-copy has been changed and your merge conflict is resolved in the usual way.

User · Answer

I came across a similar problem  wanting to pull a commit that included some binary files which caused conflicts when merged   but came across a different solution that can be done entirely using git  i e  not having to manually copy files over    I figured I d include it here so at the very least I can remember it the next time I need it      The steps look like this     git fetch   This fetches the latest commit s  from the remote repository  you may need to specify a remote branch name  depending on your setup   but doesn t try to merge them   It records the the commit in FETCH HEAD    git checkout FETCH HEAD stuff to update   This takes the copy of the binary files I want and overwrites what s in the working tree with the version fetched from the remote branch   git doesn t try to do any merging  so you just end up with an exact copy of the binary file from the remote branch   Once that s done  you can add commit the new copy just like normal

User · Answer

You have to resolve the conflict manually  copying the file over  and then commit the file  no matter if you copied it over or used the local version  like this  git commit -a -m  Fix merge conflict in test foo    Git normally autocommits after merging  but when it detects conflicts it cannot solve by itself  it applies all patches it figured out and leaves the rest for you to resolve and commit manually  The Git Merge Man Page  the Git-SVN Crash Course or this blog entry might shed some light on how it s supposed to work   Edit  See the post below  you don t actually have to copy the files yourself  but can use   git checkout --ours -- path to file txt git checkout --theirs -- path to file txt   to select the version of the file you want  Copying   editing the file will only be necessary if you want a mix of both versions   Please mark mipadis answer as the correct one

User · Answer

I came across a similar problem  wanting to pull a commit that included some binary files which caused conflicts when merged   but came across a different solution that can be done entirely using git  i e  not having to manually copy files over    I figured I d include it here so at the very least I can remember it the next time I need it      The steps look like this     git fetch   This fetches the latest commit s  from the remote repository  you may need to specify a remote branch name  depending on your setup   but doesn t try to merge them   It records the the commit in FETCH HEAD    git checkout FETCH HEAD stuff to update   This takes the copy of the binary files I want and overwrites what s in the working tree with the version fetched from the remote branch   git doesn t try to do any merging  so you just end up with an exact copy of the binary file from the remote branch   Once that s done  you can add commit the new copy just like normal

User · Answer

You have to resolve the conflict manually  copying the file over  and then commit the file  no matter if you copied it over or used the local version  like this  git commit -a -m  Fix merge conflict in test foo    Git normally autocommits after merging  but when it detects conflicts it cannot solve by itself  it applies all patches it figured out and leaves the rest for you to resolve and commit manually  The Git Merge Man Page  the Git-SVN Crash Course or this blog entry might shed some light on how it s supposed to work   Edit  See the post below  you don t actually have to copy the files yourself  but can use   git checkout --ours -- path to file txt git checkout --theirs -- path to file txt   to select the version of the file you want  Copying   editing the file will only be necessary if you want a mix of both versions   Please mark mipadis answer as the correct one

User · Answer

To resolve by keeping the version in your current branch  ignore the version from the branch you are merging in   just add and commit the file   git commit -a   To resolve by overwriting the version in your current branch with the version from the branch you are merging in  you need to retrieve that version into your working directory first  and then add commit it   git checkout otherbranch theconflictedfile git commit -a   Explained in more detail

User · Answer

You have to resolve the conflict manually  copying the file over  and then commit the file  no matter if you copied it over or used the local version  like this  git commit -a -m  Fix merge conflict in test foo    Git normally autocommits after merging  but when it detects conflicts it cannot solve by itself  it applies all patches it figured out and leaves the rest for you to resolve and commit manually  The Git Merge Man Page  the Git-SVN Crash Course or this blog entry might shed some light on how it s supposed to work   Edit  See the post below  you don t actually have to copy the files yourself  but can use   git checkout --ours -- path to file txt git checkout --theirs -- path to file txt   to select the version of the file you want  Copying   editing the file will only be necessary if you want a mix of both versions   Please mark mipadis answer as the correct one

User · Answer

If the binary is something more than a dll or something that can be edited directly like an image  or a blend file  and you don t need to trash select one file or the other  a real merge would be some like  I suggest searching for a diff tool oriented to what are your binary file  for example  there are some free ones for image files for example  npm install -g imagediff IIRC from https   github com uber image-diff or python https   github com kaikuehne mirror git there are others out there  and compare them  If there is no diff tool out there for comparing your files  then if you have the original generator of the bin file  that is  there exist an editor for it    like blender 3d  you can then manually inspect those files  also see the logs  and ask the other person what you should include  and do output of the files with https   git-scm com book es v2 Git-Tools-Advanced-Merging  manual remerge   git show  1 hello blend  gt  hello common blend   git show  2 hello blend  gt  hello ours blend   git show  3 hello blend  gt  hello theirs blend

User · Answer

I use Git Workflow for Excel - https   www xltrail com blog git-workflow-for-excel application to resolve most of my binary files related merge issues  This open-source app helps me to resolve issues productively without spending too much time and lets me cherry pick the right version of the file without any confusion

User · Answer

git checkout accepts an --ours or --theirs option for cases like this  So if you have a merge conflict  and you know you just want the file from the branch you are merging in  you can do     git checkout --theirs -- path to conflicted-file txt   to use that version of the file  Likewise  if you know you want your version  not the one being merged in  you can use    git checkout --ours -- path to conflicted-file txt

User · Answer

From the git checkout docs     git checkout  -f --ours --theirs -m --conflict  lt style gt     lt tree-ish gt    --   lt paths gt            --ours   --theirs   When checking out paths from the index  check out stage  2  ours  or  3  theirs  for unmerged paths       The index may contain unmerged entries because of a previous failed merge  By default  if you try to check out such an entry from the index  the checkout operation will fail and nothing will be checked out  Using -f will ignore these unmerged entries  The contents from a specific side of the merge can be checked out of the index by using --ours or --theirs  With -m  changes made to the working tree file can be discarded to re-create the original conflicted merge result

User · Answer

From the git checkout docs     git checkout  -f --ours --theirs -m --conflict  lt style gt     lt tree-ish gt    --   lt paths gt            --ours   --theirs   When checking out paths from the index  check out stage  2  ours  or  3  theirs  for unmerged paths       The index may contain unmerged entries because of a previous failed merge  By default  if you try to check out such an entry from the index  the checkout operation will fail and nothing will be checked out  Using -f will ignore these unmerged entries  The contents from a specific side of the merge can be checked out of the index by using --ours or --theirs  With -m  changes made to the working tree file can be discarded to re-create the original conflicted merge result

User · Answer

I use Git Workflow for Excel - https   www xltrail com blog git-workflow-for-excel application to resolve most of my binary files related merge issues  This open-source app helps me to resolve issues productively without spending too much time and lets me cherry pick the right version of the file without any confusion

User · Answer

This procedure is to resolve binary file conflicts after you have submitted a pull request to Github    So on Github  you found your pull request has a conflict on a binary file  Now go back to the same git branch on your local computer  You  a  re-make   re-build this binary file again  and  b  commit the resulted binary file to this same git branch  Then you push this same git branch again to Github     On Github  on your pull request  the conflict should disappear

User · Answer

my case seems like a bug     using git 2 21 0  I did a pull    it complained about binary files   warning  Cannot merge binary files   lt path gt  Auto-merging  lt path gt  CONFLICT  content   Merge conflict in  lt path gt  Automatic merge failed  fix conflicts and then commit the result    And then nothing in any of the answers here resulted in any output that made any sense   If I look at which file I have now    it s the one I edited  If I do either   git checkout --theirs --  lt path gt  git checkout --ours --  lt path gt    I get output   Updated 0 paths from the index   and I still have my version of the file  If I rm and then checkout  It ll say 1 instead  but it still gives me my version of the file   git mergetool says  No files need merging   and git status says      All conflicts fixed but you are still merging       use  git commit  to conclude merge    One option is to undo the commit    but I was unlucky and I had many commits  and this bad one was the first  I don t want to waste time repeating that   so to solve this madness   I just ran  git commit   which loses the remote version  and probably wastes some space storing an extra binary file    then  git checkout  lt commit where the remote version exists gt   lt path gt    which gives me back the remote version  then edited the file again   and then commit and push  which again probably means wasting space with another copy of the binary file

User · Answer

git checkout accepts an --ours or --theirs option for cases like this  So if you have a merge conflict  and you know you just want the file from the branch you are merging in  you can do     git checkout --theirs -- path to conflicted-file txt   to use that version of the file  Likewise  if you know you want your version  not the one being merged in  you can use    git checkout --ours -- path to conflicted-file txt

User · Answer

You have to resolve the conflict manually  copying the file over  and then commit the file  no matter if you copied it over or used the local version  like this  git commit -a -m  Fix merge conflict in test foo    Git normally autocommits after merging  but when it detects conflicts it cannot solve by itself  it applies all patches it figured out and leaves the rest for you to resolve and commit manually  The Git Merge Man Page  the Git-SVN Crash Course or this blog entry might shed some light on how it s supposed to work   Edit  See the post below  you don t actually have to copy the files yourself  but can use   git checkout --ours -- path to file txt git checkout --theirs -- path to file txt   to select the version of the file you want  Copying   editing the file will only be necessary if you want a mix of both versions   Please mark mipadis answer as the correct one

User · Answer

mipadi s answer didn t quite work for me  I needed to do this       git checkout --ours path to file bin   or  to keep the version being merged in      git checkout --theirs path to file bin   then     git add path to file bin   And then I was able to do  git mergetool  again and continue onto the next conflict

User · Answer

I ve come across two strategies for managing diff merge of binary files with Git on windows    Tortoise git lets you configure diff merge tools for different file types based on their file extensions  See 2 35 4 3  Diff Merge Advanced Settings http   tortoisegit org docs tortoisegit tgit-dug-settings html  This strategy of course relys on suitable diff merge tools being available  Using git attributes you can specify a tool command to convert your binary file to text and then let your default diff merge tool do it s thing  See http   git-scm com book it v2 Customizing-Git-Git-Attributes  The article even gives an example of using meta data to diff images    I got both strategies to work with binary files of software models  but we went with tortoise git as the configuration was easy

User · Answer

mipadi s answer didn t quite work for me  I needed to do this       git checkout --ours path to file bin   or  to keep the version being merged in      git checkout --theirs path to file bin   then     git add path to file bin   And then I was able to do  git mergetool  again and continue onto the next conflict

User · Answer

This procedure is to resolve binary file conflicts after you have submitted a pull request to Github    So on Github  you found your pull request has a conflict on a binary file  Now go back to the same git branch on your local computer  You  a  re-make   re-build this binary file again  and  b  commit the resulted binary file to this same git branch  Then you push this same git branch again to Github     On Github  on your pull request  the conflict should disappear

User · Answer

I ve come across two strategies for managing diff merge of binary files with Git on windows    Tortoise git lets you configure diff merge tools for different file types based on their file extensions  See 2 35 4 3  Diff Merge Advanced Settings http   tortoisegit org docs tortoisegit tgit-dug-settings html  This strategy of course relys on suitable diff merge tools being available  Using git attributes you can specify a tool command to convert your binary file to text and then let your default diff merge tool do it s thing  See http   git-scm com book it v2 Customizing-Git-Git-Attributes  The article even gives an example of using meta data to diff images    I got both strategies to work with binary files of software models  but we went with tortoise git as the configuration was easy

User · Answer

To resolve by keeping the version in your current branch  ignore the version from the branch you are merging in   just add and commit the file   git commit -a   To resolve by overwriting the version in your current branch with the version from the branch you are merging in  you need to retrieve that version into your working directory first  and then add commit it   git checkout otherbranch theconflictedfile git commit -a   Explained in more detail

User · Answer

You can also overcome this problem with

git mergetool

which causes git to create local copies of the conflicted binary and spawn your default editor on them:

{conflicted}.HEAD
{conflicted}
{conflicted}.REMOTE

Obviously you can't usefully edit binaries files in a text editor. Instead you copy the new {conflicted}.REMOTE file over {conflicted} without closing the editor. Then when you do close the editor git will see that the undecorated working-copy has been changed and your merge conflict is resolved in the usual way.

User · Answer

If the binary is something more than a dll or something that can be edited directly like an image  or a blend file  and you don t need to trash select one file or the other  a real merge would be some like  I suggest searching for a diff tool oriented to what are your binary file  for example  there are some free ones for image files for example  npm install -g imagediff IIRC from https   github com uber image-diff or python https   github com kaikuehne mirror git there are others out there  and compare them  If there is no diff tool out there for comparing your files  then if you have the original generator of the bin file  that is  there exist an editor for it    like blender 3d  you can then manually inspect those files  also see the logs  and ask the other person what you should include  and do output of the files with https   git-scm com book es v2 Git-Tools-Advanced-Merging  manual remerge   git show  1 hello blend  gt  hello common blend   git show  2 hello blend  gt  hello ours blend   git show  3 hello blend  gt  hello theirs blend

User · Answer

my case seems like a bug     using git 2 21 0  I did a pull    it complained about binary files   warning  Cannot merge binary files   lt path gt  Auto-merging  lt path gt  CONFLICT  content   Merge conflict in  lt path gt  Automatic merge failed  fix conflicts and then commit the result    And then nothing in any of the answers here resulted in any output that made any sense   If I look at which file I have now    it s the one I edited  If I do either   git checkout --theirs --  lt path gt  git checkout --ours --  lt path gt    I get output   Updated 0 paths from the index   and I still have my version of the file  If I rm and then checkout  It ll say 1 instead  but it still gives me my version of the file   git mergetool says  No files need merging   and git status says      All conflicts fixed but you are still merging       use  git commit  to conclude merge    One option is to undo the commit    but I was unlucky and I had many commits  and this bad one was the first  I don t want to waste time repeating that   so to solve this madness   I just ran  git commit   which loses the remote version  and probably wastes some space storing an extra binary file    then  git checkout  lt commit where the remote version exists gt   lt path gt    which gives me back the remote version  then edited the file again   and then commit and push  which again probably means wasting space with another copy of the binary file

[git] Resolving a Git conflict with binary files

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