Let me know if this is what you mean by "the same conflict":
(I'll try to give a full picture of the file's evolution at the bottom)
$ git checkout -b basebranch
$ echo test 123 > file.txt
$ git add file.txt
$ git commit -m '1'
$ cat file.txt
test 123
$ git checkout -b feature
$ echo test 456 >> file.txt
$ git commit -a -m 'a'
$ cat file.txt
test 123
test 456
$ # change the second line from 456 to ABC
$ echo test 123 > file.txt
$ echo test ABC >> file.txt
$ git commit -a -m 'b'
$ cat file.txt
test 123
test ABC
$ git checkout basebranch
$ echo ------ >> file.txt
$ git commit -a -m 'hyphens'
$ cat file.txt
test 123
------
$ git checkout feature
$ git rebase basebranch
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in file.txt
$ cat file.txt
test 123
<<<<<<< HEAD
------
=======
test 456
>>>>>>> c150889 (a)
$ # resolve and put 456 after ----
$ echo test 123 > file.txt
$ echo ------ >> file.txt
$ echo test 456 >> file.txt
$ git add file.txt
$ cat file.txt
test 123
------
test 456
$ git rebase --continue
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in file.txt
$ # Here is the 2nd conflict, which is similar to the 1st conflict (but not identical)
$ cat file.txt
test 123
<<<<<<< HEAD
------
test 456
=======
test ABC
>>>>>>> eb2fb01 (b)
If on the first conflict you resolve the conflict and put 456 after -----, when it applies your next commit it is still going to want to change 456 to ABC after a line that says 123 not after ---- so you will have to help git out again
Here is the first conflict:
$ git diff
diff --cc file.txt
index 2ee3b312b4,f28dd71184..0000000000
--- a/file.txt
+++ b/file.txt
@@@ -1,2 -1,2 +1,6 @@@
test 123
++<<<<<<< HEAD
+------
++=======
+ test 456
++>>>>>>> a
then if you resolve that
test 123
------
test 456
putting test 456 after the line of hyphens... and continue
git add -A
git rebase --continue
$ git diff
diff --cc file.txt
index 7329ce6fb4,acef073ce8..0000000000
--- a/file.txt
+++ b/file.txt
@@@ -1,3 -1,2 +1,7 @@@
test 123
++<<<<<<< HEAD
+------
+test 456
++=======
+ test ABC
++>>>>>>> b
because it is expecting the test 456 -> test ABC change to come after the line test 123, but it finds the line of hyphens and isn't sure that the change is still applicable.. or doesn't know how to make the change... or something.
so again you have to help it out.
test 123
------
test ABC
a couple comments about this:
- One "mistake" a lot of people make in a rebase like this is that.. if they know how the final code should look, they put the final answer in to an earlier commit... so for example... when you hit the final former conflict, you know that you have finally decided to put
ABC not 456, so you just put in the final answer.. instead of answering the question 'How can I apply this change in the new context?', people sometimes answer 'What should go here?' which can also lead to conflicts when applying later commits that are even harder to understand
- In some cases, if you don't care about the details in the feature branch, and would like to squash them all anyhow, it is helpful to squash the feature branch before rebasing against the basebranch.. then you only have to resolve the conflicts once:
git checkout feature
git rebase HEAD^^^ -i
# or
git rebase $(git merge-base HEAD basebranch)
- having to resolve two conflicts isn't necessarily a problem that needs to be avoided. If each commit you are applying matters, taking a second to think how to apply that change in the new context is sometimes exactly what you want to do. Solving the initial conflict (deciding how to apply commit 'a' given the changes to the base branch) does not tell you how to apply commit 'b'. that's a new question. You are the only person who knows how the
456 -> ABC (b) change should be applied given the line of hyphens that you have added, and having told git how to apply the initial 456 change (a) doesn't change that.
