Example—No Conflicting Changes

Let's say you have two feature branches that are bound in Git source control.

In the first feature branch (e.g., develop-feature1), you are making changes to the "Getting Started" topic. These changes are specific to the first feature being developed.

In the second feature branch (e.g., develop-feature2), you also make changes to the "Getting Started" topic. These changes are specific to the second feature being developed, and are being made in a separate part of the topic from the develop-feature1 changes.

After you complete your changes on the second feature branch, you decide you want to merge your changes from the first feature branch to the second feature branch.

In the Source Control Explorer, you select the develop-feature2 branch. Then, you click the Merge Branch button. Finally, from the drop-down list of branches, you select the develop-feature1 branch.

You click OK to merge. Since the changes took place in different sections of the "Getting Started" topic, the merging of the first feature branch into the second feature branch is successful.

Example—Conflicting Changes

Let's say you have two feature branches that are bound in Git source control.

In the first feature branch, you are making changes to the "Getting Started" topic. These changes are specific to the first feature being developed.

In the second feature branch, you also make changes to the "Getting Started" topic. The changes are made to the same paragraph as those you made for the first feature branch.

In the Source Control Explorer, you select the develop-feature2 branch. Then, you click the Merge Branch button. Finally, from the drop-down list of branches, you select the develop-feature1 branch.

You click OK to merge. Since the changes took place in the same paragraph in the "Getting Started" topic, you get a dialog indicating conflicts exist. You then click Yes to resolve the existing conflicts.

On the Resolve Conflicts dialog, you click Auto Merge All.

However, the auto merging is not successful. You click OK, then Resolve to fix the remaining conflicts.

When the Resolve Version Conflict dialog displays, you choose to Merge changes in merge tool. This will allow you to view the specific conflict taking place rather than accepting either the local or the server changes.

The Merge Changes dialog opens. The left pane is the file version on your local machine, while the right pane is the server version. The bottom pane displays how the file will display as you make your changes.

As you review the text, you notice the conflict icon next to the "Do This" bullet point. You decide to keep the server version in the right pane by right-clicking on the conflict icon and selecting Keep Change.

Notice that when you keep the changes on the right pane, the conflicting changes in the left pane are now disabled and outlined in gray.

Once you have reviewed all of the conflicts and made your changes, you click OK. At this point, you need to commit the changes that resolved your conflicts. You then type in your comment used to resolve the conflict, and click Commit.

When your changes are committed, you can now merge this branch. With the develop-feature2 branch selected, you click the Merge Branch button. You then select the develop-feature1 branch from the drop-down list. You click OK to merge. A confirmation dialog displays when the merge is completed.

The merge will also be displayed in the Branch History dialog.