Merge conflict in a file that wasn't modified in either branch

Question

When I try to rebase branch featureX on master, I get a conflict in a file (let's call it moduleA/foo) that was not modified in either master or featureX since they diverged! I checked that with the following log command:

git log master...featureX -- moduleA/foo

and the result was empty (no commit on either branch touched the file since the branches diverged).

How is this at all possible and what can I do to avoid such misleading conflicts?

Yes, it's a "both modified" conflict with conflict markers, and part of the changes inside the markers look like changes I did in `featureX` (but in another file). — Jan Warchoł, Dec 09 '16 at 16:08
How bizarre. If you don't want the changes, you can probably do `git checkout --theirs -- moduleA/foo` to remove the conflict markers. — Sean, Dec 09 '16 at 16:11
I can (thanks for the commands!), but I would also like to understand why this happened and how can I avoid this :-) — Jan Warchoł, Dec 09 '16 at 16:13
The thing is that master doesn't have new version of `moduleA/foo`. This file was not changed at all. — Jan Warchoł, Dec 09 '16 at 16:32
Try `git log --name-only master..featureX | grep moduleA/foo`, do you get something ? — Shmulik Klein, Dec 09 '16 at 16:33
try `git log featureX..master -- moduleA/foo` see whether you find anything? — Allen, Dec 09 '16 at 16:41
If `git diff --name-status master..featureX` returns nothing, they are identical... — Shmulik Klein, Dec 09 '16 at 16:48
It doesn't report any changes for moduleA/foo file (there are changes in other files). Really strange. — Jan Warchoł, Dec 09 '16 at 16:52
@ShmulikKlein Agree. One of git log `featureX..master` or `master..featureX` cannot be empty if the file is **not** identical. — Allen, Dec 09 '16 at 16:53
@JanekWarchoł are you sure the contents of *moduleA/foo* in master and featureX are exactly the same? — Allen, Dec 09 '16 at 16:57
@Xlee yes, they are exactly the same (I have compared them manually outside the repo). — Jan Warchoł, Dec 09 '16 at 17:02
@Oh, i got your point, they're not modified at all after branch diverge. It's possible as `rebase` algorithmic flaws, i suffered similar issues before, i would suggest you to get some temp hooks as adviced in the comments first, and wait for the git professionals to resolve this :D — Allen, Dec 09 '16 at 17:09

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 13 '18 at 10:48

As @Xlee said, rebase can result on changing the hash of the commit and messing up with history.

There are some other possibilities such as :
- featureX have been force pushed
- Someone created a commit which changes the moduleA/foo file and reverted it on master
- you GIT is playfull and likes to tease you. Your choice

Merge conflict in a file that wasn't modified in either branch

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