Plume-lib merging: merge drivers and merge tools

This project contains git merge drivers and git merge tools. (See below for definitions of "merge driver" and "merge tool".)

Features

Adjacent lines: This resolves conflicts when the two edits affect different lines that are adjacent. By default, git considers edits to different, adjacent lines to be a conflict.
Java annotations: This resolves conflicts in favor of retaining a Java annotation, when the only textual difference is in annotations.
Java imports: This handles conflicts in import statements, keeping all the necessary imports. It also prevents a merge from removing a needed import statement, even if the merge would be clean. It does nothing if the file's conflicts contain anything other than import statements.
Version numbers: This resolves conflicts in favor of the larger version number.

You can enable and disable each feature individually, or enable just one feature. These command-line arguments are supported by the merge driver merge-driver.sh and the merge tool merge-tool.sh.

--adjacent, --no-adjacent, --only-adjacent [default: disabled]
--java-annotations, --no-java-annotations, --only-java-annotations [default: enabled]
--java-imports, --no-java-imports, --only-java-imports [default: enabled]
--version-numbers, --no-version-numbers, --only-version-numbers [default: enabled]

Unfortunately, git does not permit the user to specify command-line arguments to be passed to a merge driver or merge tool. See below for how to define different merge drivers and merge tools that pass different command-line arguments.

How to use

You can use the mergers in this repository in three ways.

Using them as merge drivers is most convenient, because you don't have to remember to issue any commands.
Using them as re-merge tools leads to the best merge results; see below for an explanation.
Using them as merge tools is not recommended, because a merge tool requires too much user interaction for what should be an automated process.

Common setup

You must have Java 17 or later installed. Either the JAVA_HOME or JAVA17_HOME environment variable must be set to it.
Clone this repository.
In the top level of this repository, run either ./gradlew nativeCompile (if you are using GraalVM) or ./gradlew shadowJar (if you are using any other JVM). Using nativeCompile is recommended, because it produces a binary that runs much faster than Java .class files do.
Put directory .../merging/src/main/sh/ on your PATH, adjusting "..." according to where you cloned this repository. (Or, use the absolute pathname in uses of *.sh files below.) After changing one of your dotfiles to set PATH, you may need to log out and log back in again to have the change take effect.

How to use as a merge driver

After performing the following steps, git will automatically use the merge driver for every merge.

Run these commands:

git config --global merge.conflictstyle diff3
git config --global merge.plumelib-merge.name "Merge Java files"
git config --global merge.plumelib-merge.driver 'merge-driver.sh %A %O %B'
git config --global merge.merge-adjacent.name "Merge changes on adjacent lines"
git config --global merge.merge-adjacent.driver 'merge-driver.sh --only-adjacent %A %O %B'

To take effect only for one repository, replace --global by --local and run the commands within the repository.

You can define additional merge drivers that pass different sets of arguments, beyond the plumelib-merge and merge-adjacent merge drivers defined below.

In a gitattributes file, add:

* merge=plumelib-merge

*.java merge=merge-adjacent

To enable the merge driver for a single repository, add the above text to the repository's .gitattributes file. (Or to its .git/info/attributes file, in which case it won't be committed with the project.)

To enable the merge driver for all repositories, add the above text to your user-level gitattributes file. The user-level gitattributes file is by default $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/attributes. You can change the user-level file to be ~/.gitattributes by running the following command, once ever per computer: git config --global core.attributesfile '~/.gitattributes'

How to use as a re-merge tool

See below for setup.

To perform a merge, run:

git merge [ARGS]
git-mergetool.sh --all [--tool=plumelib-merge]

(You can omit the --tool=... command-line argument if you have only set up one merge tool.)

Or, after a git merge that leaves conflicts, run:

git-mergetool.sh --all [--tool=plumelib-merge]

You can create a shell alias or a git alias that first runs git merge, then runs git-mergetool.sh --all.

Setup for use as a merge tool or re-merge-tool

There is just one step for setup.

Run the following commands to edit your ~/.gitconfig file.

git config --global merge.conflictstyle diff3
git config --global mergetool.prompt false
git config --global merge.tool plumelib-merge
git config --global mergetool.plumelib-merge.cmd 'merge-tool.sh ${LOCAL} ${BASE} ${REMOTE} ${MERGED}'
git config --global mergetool.plumelib-merge.trustExitCode true
git config --global merge.tool merge-adjacent
git config --global mergetool.merge-adjacent.cmd 'merge-tool.sh --only-adjacent ${LOCAL} ${BASE} ${REMOTE} ${MERGED}'
git config --global mergetool.merge-adjacent.trustExitCode true

To take effect only for one repository, replace --global by --local and run the commands within the repository.

You may wish to set up just one merge tool (not two as shown above), so that you do not have to pass the --tool= command-line argument to git-mergetool.sh and git mergetool.

How to use as a merge tool

See above for setup.

After a git merge that leaves conflicts, run one of the following commands. (You can omit the --tool=... command-line argument if you have only set up one merge tool.)

git mergetool [--tool=plumelib-merge]

git mergetool [--tool=merge-adjacent]

A fundamental limitation of git mergetool is that it requires user interaction in two scenarios (even with the -y and --no-prompt command-line arguments!):

Whenever a file was not perfectly merged, you need to type y to continue. You should choose "y" because the merge tool might have made some improvements even if it didn't resolve every conflict, and also because you wish to run it on the rest of the files in the repository.
Whenever there is a merge-delete conflict, you need to choose among "Use (m)odified or (d)eleted file, or (a)bort?".

Instead of git mergetool, you can run git-mergetool.sh, which eliminates the need for user interaction.

Git merge terminology

A merge driver is automatically called during git merge whenever no two of {base,version1,version2} are the same. It writes a merged file, which may or may not contain conflict markers. The merge drivers in this repository first call git merge-file, then resolve some conflicts left by git merge-file.

A merge tool is called manually by the programmer (via git mergetool) after a merge that left conflict markers. After running git merge (and perhaps manually resolving some of the conflicts), you might run a merge tool to resolve further conflicts. For each file that contains conflict markers, the merge tool runs and observes the base, version1, version2, and the conflicted merge (which the merge tool can overwrite with a new merge result). If the merge driver produced a clean merge for a given file, then the merge tool is not run on the file.

A re-merge tool is called manually by the programmer (via git-mergetool.sh). A re-merge tool differs from a merge tool in the following ways:

It not require user interaction. (By contrast, a regular git merge tool requires you to press a key for every file that gets merged.)
With the --all command-line argument, it is run on every file that differed between the two versions being merged -- even ones for which the merge driver produced a clean merge. This feature is is only necessary for mergers that may re-introduce lines that were removed in a clean merge. The Java imports merger is the only example currently. Most mergers (other than the Java imports merger) do not require the --all command-line argument.

A merger is either a merge tool or a merge driver.

A merge strategy works on internal git data structures, deciding what text to hand to a merge driver. (For example, it detects renames.) However, if two of {version1,version2,base} are the same, then the merge strategy makes a decision and the merge driver is never called. This repository does not include a merge strategy; the ones built into git are adequate.

Why to use a (re-)merge tool rather than a merge driver

You may wish to use a merger in this repository as a re-merge tool, rather than as a merge driver. The reason is that git merge-file sometimes produces merge conflicts where git merge does not (even with rerere and other git merge functionality disabled!). Therefore, the merge drivers in this repository (which first call git merge-file, then improve the results) may produce suboptimal results. A (re-)merge tool lets you use git merge, then still use a merger to improve the results.

License

This project is distributed under the MIT license. One file uses a different license: diff_match_patch.java uses the Apache License, Version 2.0, which is compatible with the MIT license.

mernst / merging