Re: Branch merge bug

[Michael J Gruber <git@drmicha.warpmail.net>]

Ramkumar Ramachandra venit, vidit, dixit 19.01.2010 08:22:
> A friend showed me this reduced test case. It seems to work fine with
> bzr and hg. Is this a git bug?

It's not a bug, it's a feature. Git does not track renames. It tracks
content and detects renames when necessary. Knowing that it is easy to
construct examples on which git merge "fails", such as the one you present.

A file which is changed completely is not a renamed file, it's a new one
under the same name. Whether the committer meant to create a new file
(using the same name by accident or on purpose) or whether it is really
a heavily modified and renamed version - who knows? Git doesn't, and
cannot, and it leaves that decision up to you.

If you really mean to modify and rename an existing file, then tell Git so:

git mv fil fila
git commit -m 'we need a new name'

instead of your 'git rm fil' will record your intentions (not only for
Git, but also for everyone else reading your log, such as you a year
from now) and will make the merge succeed.

Michael