On Wed, Mar 14, 2018 at 05:56:04PM +0100, Lars Schneider wrote: > I am investigating a Git merge (a86dd40fe) in which an older version of > a file won over the newer version. I try to understand why this is the > case. I can reproduce the merge with the following commands: > $ git checkout -b test a02fa3303 > $ GIT_MERGE_VERBOSITY=5 git merge --verbose c1b82995c > > The merge actually generates a merge conflict but not for my > problematic file. The common ancestor of the two parents (merge base) > is b91161554. > > The merge graph is not pretty (the committers don't have a clean > branching scheme) but I cannot spot a problem between the merge commit > and the common ancestor: > $ git log --graph --oneline a86dd40fe > > Can you give me a hint how to debug this merge further? How can I > understand why Git picked a certain version of a file in a merge? Maybe a stupid question, but: did you make sure that the merge does indeed pick the wrong version of the file? The other option is that somebody mistakenly did a "checkout --ours" or similar while resolving the conflict. If the wrong file is indeed picked by the merge, then you may want to try switching merge drivers. E.g., "-s resolve" is a bit simpler and stupider than the default merge-recursive. If the problem goes away, then we know it's a possible bug in merge-recursive (or maybe a confusing implication of its strategy). If the problem is still there with "resolve", then at least it may be easier to debug. ;) -Peff
