How to Ignore Merge Conflicts for Specific Files in a Git Repository
Create a directory and git init it
$ mkdir merge-test
$ cd merge-test/
$ git init
Create some simple content and commit it. When we're done, the contents of one directory will generate a conflict, the contents of the other will not.
$ mkdir allow-conflict
$ mkdir ignore-conflict
$ echo a > allow-conflict/index.txt
$ echo b > ignore-conflict/index.txt
$ git add -A
$ git commit -m 'initial commit'
Check out a new branch and modify the content of both files. This branch will represent the 'local' branch.
$ git checkout -b local-branch
$ echo a-my-conflicting-content >> allow-conflict/index.txt
$ echo b-my-conflicting-content >> ignore-conflict/index.txt
$ git add -A
$ git commit -m 'add content in local branch'
Check out another new branch and modify the content of both files. This branch will represent the 'remote' branch.
$ git checkout master
$ git checkout -b remote-branch
$ echo a-their-conflicting-content >> allow-conflict/index.txt
$ echo b-their-conflicting-content >> ignore-conflict/index.txt
$ git add -A
$ git commit -m 'add content in remote branch'
Let's verify that at this point, trying to merge the two branches will generate conflicts for both files.
$ git checkout local-branch
$ git merge remote-branch
You'll see this conflict message:
Auto-merging ignore-conflict/index.txt
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in ignore-conflict/index.txt
Auto-merging allow-conflict/index.txt
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in allow-conflict/index.txt
Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.
Now let's tell git to ignore the conflict in ignore-conflict/index.txt. First, reset so we can try the merge again.
$ git reset --hard
Create a .gitattributes file in ignore-conflict that says only index.txt merge=ours
$ echo index.txt merge=ours > ignore-conflict/.gitattributes
Define an "ours" merge strategy in the git config.
$ git config merge.ours.driver true
(if you cat .git/config at this point, you'll see at the bottom:)
[merge "ours"]
driver = true
Try to merge the branches again,
$ git merge remote-branch
and we'll see only one conflict.
Auto-merging allow-conflict/index.txt
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in allow-conflict/index.txt
Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.
Success!
Sources:
http://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Customizing-Git-Git-Attributes#Merge-Strategies http://stackoverflow.com/a/930495/958481
Although all this is interesting, i personally prefer at this moment to focus my available time on functionality. Investing hours to efficiently create a time stamp is a bit too much time spent from my side.
Also, a commit should be efficient, smooth, and without workarounds if possible.
We came from a commit process where every time we had to regenerate a complete file before every commit and it was too much overhead, and on top, it was creating unwanted conflicts when dealing with merges.
I will look into the idea above but want to question the urgency of this requirement.