Git merge left HEAD marks in my files

Question

I tried to merge a file in the command line using Git, when an error message appeared telling me the merge was aborted.

I thought that was the end of it, but then I realized there are gitmarks in my files. Like so:

start =
    expression

validchar = 
    [0-9a-zA-Z_?!+\-=@#$%^&*/.]

integer = 
<<<<<<< HEAD
    digits:[0-9]+
        { return digits.join(""); }
=======
    sign:"-"* digits:[0-9]+
        { return sign + digits.join(""); }
>>>>>>> gh-pages

The files have been edited not by me and show lines inserted with:

• HEAD after less than signs (<<<<<<< HEAD)
• lines of changed code
• a string of equals signs (=======)
• the new version of the code
• another line starting with greater than signs and the name of the branch (>>>>>>> gh-pages)

What's worse is that the file contents are no longer in order. Does anyone know how I get those files back to normal, and the changes I made in the gh-branch merged into the master branch?

Answer 1

Those are conflict markers. You're still in the process of merging, but there were some parts that Git couldn't merge automatically. You'll need to hand-edit those parts to what you want them to be and then commit the results.

---

For instance, in your particular case, you'd probably want to resolve it like this (note - the arrows/text on the right are just my notes, not something you'd type into the file):

integer = 
<<<<<<< HEAD                                  <-+ remove the bits here
    digits:[0-9]+                               |
        { return digits.join(""); }             |
=======                                       <-+
    sign:"-"* digits:[0-9]+
        { return sign + digits.join(""); }
>>>>>>> gh-pages                              <-- and this

and thus you'd save the file as...

integer = 
    sign:"-"* digits:[0-9]+
        { return sign + digits.join(""); }