How do I merge a binary file?

Question

I have a binary file in my_branch, and when I need to make changes to it, git will of course not merge it.

So what I do now is:

git checkout my_branch
#          


        

Answer 1

you could use the built-in binary merge driver:

binary: Keep the version from your branch in the work tree, but
leave the path in the conflicted state for the user to sort out.

example .gitattributes line:

*.bin -crlf -diff merge=binary

tells git not to add line endings, not to diff, and to keep the local version

http://git-scm.com/docs/gitattributes

that only preserves your working copy...

another way is to use a custom merge driver:

[merge "binmerge"]
  name = my binary merge script
  driver = binmerge.sh %O %A %B

That could check the conflicting file against a list of files that should always be overwritten by your local version...

to use a merge driver, define it in the config, then specify what paths it should be used on in .gitattributes, like so:

*.bin -crlf -diff merge=binmerge

binmerge.sh will be called to handle the merge. it can essentially just do something like:

#!/bin/sh
echo "Performing merge of binary object ($1, $2, $3)"
touch $2
exit 0