Conflicts, stash and cherry-pick

Reading conflict markers, resolving without losing work, shelving changes mid-task, and copying single commits.

What a conflict actually is

Git merges line by line. A conflict means both sides changed overlapping lines and Git will not silently choose — which is the entire point.

<<<<<<< HEAD
const limit = 20;
=======
const limit = 50;
>>>>>>> feature/paging

Everything above ======= is your current branch; everything below comes from the branch being merged. Delete the markers and keep the correct result (or a genuine combination).

git status                # shows which files are unmerged
git checkout --ours f     # keep your side wholesale
git checkout --theirs f   # keep their side wholesale
git add f                 # mark resolved
git merge --continue

git merge --abort         # give up, return to pre-merge state

Stashing work in progress

git stash push -m 'half-done refactor'
git stash list
git stash pop              # restore and drop
git stash apply            # restore but keep the entry
git stash -u               # include untracked files

Useful for switching branches with uncommitted work. Avoid long-lived stashes — they are easy to forget and painful to merge later.

Cherry-pick and bisect

git cherry-pick <sha>          # copy one commit onto this branch

# find the commit that introduced a bug
git bisect start
git bisect bad
git bisect good v1.4.0
# test, then mark each step good/bad
git bisect reset

Cherry-pick copies changes but creates a new commit — fine for hotfixes across release branches, a maintenance burden if used as routine workflow.

FAQ

Related

Branching and merging Undoing mistakes

Last refreshed 2026-09-17.