git merge后如何处理xxx~HEAD？

Question

In my branchA:

I copy a file from folder04/config.xml to folder05/config.xml , then git add and commit .

In my branchB (B is branch out from A):

I already have one file named folder05/config.xml .

Now I merge branchA into branchB , it appears a weird conflict like this.

Untracked files:   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be
committed)

    folder05/config.xml~HEAD

It generates a file named config.xml~ HEAD , what does it means?

I can't understand why, and what should I do in this situation?

Answer 1

It generates a file named config.xml~HEAD, what does it means?

This file was generated automatically by git because you had a filename collision conflict - you had two items that were unrelated in the two branches trying to occupy the name config.xml .

This could be caused by a variety of situations:

Most likely , you created file named config.xml in your branch. In the branch you're merging in, a different file was renamed to config.xml . Since these two files lack any common ancestor, they can't be merged. They should both be kept in the working directory, but as a conflict. So they will both be kept, but with unique names.

The config.xml in the branch being merged will be checked out on disk as config.xml . The config.xml in your branch will be checked out on disk as config.xml~HEAD .

Here's an example, where we add a file named newname.txt in our master branch, and rename file.txt into newname.txt in the branch that we're merging in. In this case, a conflict will be raised and our branch's contents will be written as newname.txt~HEAD in the working folder:

% git checkout -bbranch
Switched to a new branch 'branch'

% git mv file.txt newname.txt

% git commit -m"rename file -> newname"
[branch d37e379] rename file -> newname
 1 file changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 rename file.txt => newname.txt (100%)

% git checkout master
Switched to branch 'master'

% echo "new file" > newname.txt

% git add newname.txt

% git commit -m"added newname in master"
[master f7bd593] added newname in master
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
 create mode 100644 newname.txt

% git merge branch
CONFLICT (rename/add): Rename file.txt->newname.txt in branch. newname.txt added in HEAD
Adding as newname.txt~HEAD instead
Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.

Once you have resolved the conflict to your satisfaction and committed the merge, you can simply delete the ~HEAD file from your working directory.

(Finally, remember that git does not track that renames occurred, it uses heuristics to detect renames. So this conflict - in practice - may not really be a conflict because the files may not have really been renamed.)