kdb-merge(1) -- Three-way merge of KeySets

kdb merge [options] ourpath theirpath basepath resultpath

• ourpath: Path to the keyset to serve as ours
• theirpath: path to the keyset to serve as theirs
• basepath: path to the base keyset
• resultpath: path without keys where the merged keyset will be saved

DESCRIPTION

Does a three-way merge between keysets. On success the resulting keyset will be saved to mergepath. On unresolved conflicts nothing will be changed.

THREE-WAY MERGE

The kdb merge command uses a three-way merge by default. A three-way merge is when three versions of a file (or in this case, KeySet) are compared in order to automatically merge the changes made to the KeySet over time. These three versions of the KeySet are:

• base: The base KeySet is the original version of the KeySet.
• ours: The ours KeySet represents the user's current version of the KeySet. This KeySet differs from base for every key you changed.
• theirs: The theirs KeySet usually represents the default version of a KeySet (usually the package maintainer's version). This KeySet differs from base for every key someone has changed.

The three-way merge works by comparing the ours KeySet and the theirs KeySet to the base KeySet. By looking for differences in these KeySets, a new KeySet called result is created that represents a merge of these KeySets.

CONFLICTS

Conflicts occur when a Key has a different value in all three KeySets. Conflicts in a merge can be resolved using a strategy with the -s option. To interactively resolve conflicts, use the -i option.

OPTIONS

• -H, --help: Show the man page.
• -V, --version: Print version info.
• -p, --profile=<profile>: Use a different kdb profile.
• s, --strategy <name>: Specify which strategy should be used to resolve conflicts.
• -v, --verbose: Explain what is happening.
• -i, --interactive Interactively resolve the conflicts.
• -C, --color=[when]: Print never/auto(default)/always colored output.

EXAMPLES

To complete a simple merge of three KeySets: kdb merge user/ours user/theirs user/base user/result

To complete a merge whilst using the ours version of the KeySet to resolve conflicts: kdb merge -s ours user/ours user/theirs user/base user/result

To complete a three-way merge and overwrite all current keys in the resultpath: kdb merge -s cut user/ours user/theirs user/base user/result

SEE ALSO

• elektra-merge-strategy(7)