Linux in a Nutshell, Third Edition

Name

merge

Synopsis

merge [options] file1 file2 file3

Description

Perform a three-way file merge. merge incorporates all changes that lead from file2 to file3 and puts the results into file1. merge is useful for combining separate changes to an original. Suppose file2 is the original, and both file1 and file3 are modifications of file2. Then merge combines both changes. A conflict occurs if both file1 and file3 have changes in a common segment of lines. If a conflict is found, merge normally outputs a warning and puts brackets around the conflict, with lines preceded by <<<<<<< and >>>>>>>. A typical conflict looks like this:

<<<<<<< file1
relevant lines from file1
=======
relevant lines from file3
>>>>>>> file3

If there are conflicts, the user should edit the result and delete one of the alternatives.

Options

-e

Don’t warn about conflicts.

-p

Send results to standard output instead of overwriting file1.

-q

Quiet; do not warn about conflicts.

-A

Output conflicts using the -A style of diff3. This merges all changes leading from file2 to file3 into file1 and generates the most verbose output.

-E

Output conflict information in a less verbose style than -A; this is the default.

-L label

Specify up to three labels to be used in place of the corresponding filenames in conflict reports. That is:

merge -L x -L y -L z 
                              file_a 
                              file_b 
                              file_c

generates output that looks as if it came from x, y, and z instead of from file_a, file_b, and file_c.

-V

Print version number.