Mastering Vim

Resolving a merge conflict

Start the Git merge tool (which is vimdiff, since we configured it earlier):

$ git mergetool

You will be treated to quite a light show, with four windows and a lot of colors thrown at you:

It's okay to be scared, but it's not as terrifying as it looks.

Local changes (master branch in this case) are in the upper-left window, followed by a closest common ancestor and the create-animal branch in the upper-right corner. The result of the merge is in the bottom window.

To get into more detail, from left to right, top to bottom:

• LOCAL: This is file from the current branch (or whatever you're merging into)
• BASE: