Git Conflicts Template

This template has a few conflicts to help you practice resolving them.

❗️ Important: Follow these instructions carefully step by step.

💡 This repo has to be imported into your own GitHub account using the import feature to keep all the commits of this template repo. The normal GitHub Template feature flattens the history of the template repo and you will not be able to see the conflicts.

Getting Ready

1. command+click here to create a new repository on GitHub.com using the import repository feature.
2. Use this URL to import the template:

https://github.com/neuefische/web-git-conflicts-template

3. Leave the username and accesstoken or password fields empty.
4. Create it as git-conflicts in your own account. Click on "Begin import" and wait for the import to finish.
5. In your new Repository open pull requests for the pirate, full-date and styling branches.

   💡 It's easiest to do this by clicking on the "Compare & pull request" buttons that appear after you have created the repository on GitHub.

6. Clone your repository to your computer.

All three branches should now show conflicts in the Pull Request interface.

The Project

The project you're working on is a small website that explains how to survive in the forest. The pirate branch changes the intro text to be in pirate language. The full-date branch changes the copyright year to a full date in JavaScript. The styling branch changes the styling of the website.

💡 The contents of the website are not important. The conflicts are. 🤓

Resolving Conflicts

1. pirate Branch (using merge on the command line)

Switch to the pirate branch locally and merge main into it.

Resolve the Conflict

Git now shows:

Auto-merging index.html
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in index.html
Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.

Resolve the conflict by logically combining the changes from both branches:

• pirate translated the introduction to pirate speak
• main removed a redundant half sentence "and how to build a shelter"

Keep the translation from pirate and remove the redundant half sentence: "and how t' build a shelter".

Push the Changes

Push your new changes to the pirate branch and look at the Pull Request.

Merge using the Pull Request

Merge the pirate branch into main using the Pull Request interface and delete the pirate branch.

2. full-date Branch (using Resolve Conflicts on GitHub)

Go to the Pull Request for the full-date branch and click on the "Resolve conflicts" button above the disabled "Merge pull request" button.

Resolve the Conflict

Resolve the conflict by logically combining the changes from both branches:

• full-date changed the code to show the full date
• main refactored the code to only on line

Keep the changes from full-date as-is since the refactor to one line (on the main branch) was not necessary. (Accept the current change.)

Mark the conflict as resolved by clicking "Mark as resolved" and then commit it with the "Commit merge" button.

Merge using the Pull Request

Merge the full-date branch into main using the Pull Request interface and delete the full-date branch.

3. (Variant A) styling Branch (using merge)

💡 This variant is easier to do than using rebase (B). If you're up for a challenge, try variant B.

❗️ Go to the main branch locally and pull any changes from the remote before starting.

Repeat the steps of part 1 but for the styling branch.

To resolve the conflicts, keep the changes from the styling branch that introduce custom properties to the CSS but set the --min-width property to 68ch (the new value from the main branch).

3. (Variant B) styling Branch (using rebase on the command line)

💡 This variant is more advanced and requires you to know how to use rebase on the command line. If you are not familiar with rebase yet, skip this variant and do the merge variant (A) instead.

❗️ Go to the main branch locally and pull any changes from the remote before starting.

Switch to the styling branch locally and rebase it to main.

Git now shows:

Auto-merging styles.css
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in styles.css
error: could not apply 25cca8a... move max-width to custom property
hint: Resolve all conflicts manually, mark them as resolved with
hint: "git add/rm <conflicted_files>", then run "git rebase --continue".
hint: You can instead skip this commit: run "git rebase --skip".
hint: To abort and get back to the state before "git rebase", run "git rebase --abort".
Could not apply 25cca8a... move max-width to custom property

Resolve the Conflict

Resolve the conflict in style.css by logically combining the changes:

• Incoming change 25cca8a (styling) refactored the css file to use a custom property for --max-width
• Current change HEAD (main) set the max width in the min() function to 68ch instead of 60ch

Accept the incoming change from styling but keep the 68ch value for --max-width from main.

💡 Notice that when rebasing the logic of incoming and current change is reversed.

Use git add . to add your changes and run git rebase --continue to continue the rebase.

Git opens an editor with the commit message for the rebased commit. Keep the message as-is, save and close the editor.

💡 Most likely you're in vim. To save and close the editor type :wq and press Enter.

Resolve the second conflict

Git now shows:

[detached HEAD 473a5e2] move max-width to custom property
 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
Auto-merging styles.css
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in styles.css
error: could not apply dd7e7df... create more custom properties
hint: Resolve all conflicts manually, mark them as resolved with
hint: "git add/rm <conflicted_files>", then run "git rebase --continue".
hint: You can instead skip this commit: run "git rebase --skip".
hint: To abort and get back to the state before "git rebase", run "git rebase --abort".
Could not apply dd7e7df... create more custom properties

Resolve the conflict in style.css by logically combining the changes:

• Incoming change dd7e7df (styling) added more custom properties
• Current change HEAD (main) has the changes from the previously resolved conflict

Accept the incoming change from styling but keep the 68ch value for --max-width from main again.

Run git add . and git rebase --continue and keep the commit message.

Pushing the Changes

The rebase is now finished.

If you run git status you should see:

On branch styling
Your branch and 'origin/styling' have diverged,
and have 11 and 3 different commits each, respectively.
  (use "git pull" to merge the remote branch into yours)

nothing to commit, working tree clean

You cannot push the styling branch to the remote because it has diverged from the remote. You need to force push it. Run git push --force-with-lease to do so.

Merge using the Pull Request

Merge the styling branch into main using the Pull Request interface and delete the styling branch.

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👏 Congratulations! You have successfully resolved all conflicts and all changes are in main.