On Thu, Feb 08, 2018 at 10:51:57AM +0000, Nick O'Leary wrote: > $ git diff README.md > diff --cc README.md > index 61d78b2,620d806..0000000 > --- a/README.md > +++ b/README.md > @@@ -1,7 -1,1 +1,11 @@@ > -This is my default readme > ++<<<<<<< HEAD > +merged-history-test > +=================== > + > +### About > + > +This is your project's README.md file. It helps users understand what your > - project does, how to use it and anything else they may need to know. > ++project does, how to use it and anything else they may need to know. > ++======= > ++This is my default readme > ++>>>>>>> dev > > This does not look right to me. The 'This is my default readme' line > has ++ at the start - suggesting its new to both parent copies of the > file, which isn't the case - it came from the dev branch so should be > prefixed with '+ '. > I'm also not clear why the line beginning 'project does' has both a - > and ++ prefix. Are you sure there aren't whitespace differences in those two lines? For instance, if I do: # base commit git init git commit --allow-empty -m base # one side; note missing newline! printf 'this is my default readme' >file git add file git commit -m default # other side git checkout -b other HEAD^ { echo this is a longer echo and more involved echo README } >file git add file git commit -m longer # and now merge and get a conflict git merge master Then I get similar output to you. The content with merge-conflicts can't represent the original lack-of-newline for that file, because of course there's another ">>>" line after it. If I swap out the printf for echo, adding the newline, then it produces the output you'd expect. -Peff