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<html><head><title>Merging And The Merge Output Editor Window</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="help:/common/tde-default.css" type="text/css"><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.67.2"><meta name="keywords" content="KDE, kdeextragear, kdiff3, diff, merge, CVS, triplediff, compare, files, directories, version control, three-way-merge, in-line-differences, synchronise, kpart, kio, networktransparent, editor, white space, comments"><link rel="start" href="index.html" title="The KDiff3 Handbook"><link rel="up" href="documentation.html" title="Chapter 2. File Comparison And Merge"><link rel="prev" href="interpretinginformation.html" title="Comparing Files And Interpreting The Information In The Input Windows"><link rel="next" href="navigation.html" title="Navigation And Editing"><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"><meta name="GENERATOR" content="KDE XSL Stylesheet V1.13 using libxslt"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div style="background-image: url(help:/common/top-middle.png); width: 100%; height: 131px;"><div style="position: absolute; right: 0px;"><img src="help:/common/top-right-konqueror.png" style="margin: 0px" alt=""></div><div style="position: absolute; top: 25px; right: 100px; text-align: right; font-size: xx-large; font-weight: bold; text-shadow: #fff 0px 0px 5px; color: #444">Merging And The Merge Output Editor Window</div></div><div style="margin-top: 20px; background-color: #white; color: black; margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 20px;"><div style="position: absolute; left: 20px;"><a accesskey="p" href="interpretinginformation.html">Prev</a></div><div style="position: absolute; right: 20px;"><a accesskey="n" href="navigation.html">Next</a></div><div class="navCenter">File Comparison And Merge</div></div><div class="sect1" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="merging"></a>Merging And The Merge Output Editor Window</h2></div></div></div><div class="screenshot"><div xmlns:doc="http://nwalsh.com/xsl/documentation/1.0" class="mediaobject"><hr><img src="screenshot_merge.png"><hr></div></div><p>
The merge output editor window (below the diff input windows) also has an info line at the top showing "Output:", the
filename and "[Modified]" if you edited something. Usually it will contain
some text through the automatic merge facilities, but often it will also
contain conflicts.
</p><p>
!!! Saving is disabled until all conflicts are resolved !!! (Use the "Go
to prev/next unsolved conflicts"-buttons to find the remaining conflicts.)
</p><p>
With only two input files every difference is also a conflict that must
be solved manually.
</p><p>
With three input files the first file is treated as base, while the
second and third input files contain modifications. When at any line only
either input B or input C have changed but not both then the changed source
will automatically be selected. Only when B and C have changed on the same
lines, then the tool detects a conflict that must be solved manually.
When B and C are the same, but not the same as A, then C is selected.
</p><div class="sect2" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="id2564630"></a>The Summary Column</h3></div></div></div><p>
The merge output editor window also has a summary column on the left. It shows the
letter of the input from which a line was selected or nothing if all three
sources where equal on a line. For conflicts it shows a questionmark "?"
and the line shows "<Merge Conflict>", all in red. Because solving
conflicts line by line would take very long, the lines are grouped into
groups that have the same difference and conflict characteristics.
But only-white-space-conflicts are separated from non-white-space-conflicts
in order to ease the merging of files were the indentation changed for many
lines.
</p></div><div class="sect2" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="synchronise_views"></a>Setting The Current Group And Synchronising Merge And Diff View Position</h3></div></div></div><p>
When clicking into the summary column with the left mouse button in either
window then the beginning of the group belonging to that line will shown in all windows.
This group then becomes the "current group". It is highlighted with the
"Current range (diff) background color" and
a black bar appears on the left side of the text.
</p></div><div class="sect2" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="id2564684"></a>Choosing Inputs A, B or C For Current Conflict And Editing</h3></div></div></div><p>
The button bar below the menubar contains three input selector buttons
containing the letters "A", "B" and "C". Click the input selector
button to insert (or remove if already inserted) the lines from the respective source.
To choose the lines from several inputs click the respective buttons in the
needed order. For example if you want that the lines from "B" appear before
the lines from "A" in the output, first click "B", then "A".
</p><p>
If you use the auto-advance option
(<a href="navigation.html#autoadvance" title="Auto-Advance">"Automatically go to next unsolved conflict after source selection"</a>),
you should disable this before choosing lines from several inputs or if you want to
edit the lines after your choice. Otherwise <span class="application">KDiff3</span> will jump to the next
conflict after choosing the first input.
</p><p>
It is often helpful directly edit the merge output.
The summary column will show "m" for every line that was manually modified.
When for instance the differences are aligned in a way that simply choosing
the inputs won't be satisfactory, then you can mark the needed text and use
normal <a href="selections.html" title="Select, Copy And Paste">copy and paste</a> to put it into the merge output.
</p><p>
Sometimes, when a line is removed either by automatic merge or by editing
and no other lines remain in that group, then the text <No src line>
will appear in that line. This is just a placeholder for the group for
when you might change your mind and select some source again. This text won't
appear in the saved file or in any selections you want to copy and paste.
</p><p>
The text "<Merge Conflict>" will appear in the clipboard if you
copy and paste some text containing such a line. But still be careful to
do so.
</p></div><div class="sect2" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="id2564761"></a>Choosing Input A, B, or C for All Conflicts</h3></div></div></div><p>
The normal merge will start by solving simple conflicts automatically.
But the "Merge"-menu provides some actions for other common needs.
If you have to select the same source for most conflicts, then you can
choose "A", "B" or "C" everywhere, or only for the remaining unsolved
conflicts, or for unsolved white space conflicts. If you want to decide every
single delta yourself, you can "Set deltas to conflicts". Or if you want to
return to the automatic choices of <span class="application">KDiff3</span> then select
"Automatically solve simple conflicts". <span class="application">KDiff3</span> then restarts the merge.
For actions that change your previous modifications <span class="application">KDiff3</span> will ask for your
confirmation before proceeding.
</p><p>
Note: When choosing either source for unsolved white space conflicts and
the options "Ignore Numbers" or "Ignore C/C++ Comments" are used then changes in
numbers or comments will be treated like white space too.
</p></div><div class="sect2" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="vcskeywordsmergesupport"></a>Automatic Merge of Version Control Keywords and History (Log)</h3></div></div></div><p>
Many version control systems support special keywords in the file. (e.g. "$Date$",
"$Header$", "$Author$", "$Log$" etc.) During the
check-in the version control system (VCS) changes these lines. For instance
"$Date$" will turn into "$Date: 2005/03/22 18:45:01 $". Since this line will
be different in every version of the file, it would require manual interaction
during the merge.
</p><p>
<span class="application">KDiff3</span> offers automatic merge for these items. For simple lines that match the
"Auto merge regular expression"-option in all input-files <span class="application">KDiff3</span> will choose
the line from B or - if available - from C. (Additionally it is necessary that the lines
in question line up in the comparison and the previous line contains no conflict.)
This auto merge can either be run immediately after a merge starts (activate the option
"Run regular expression auto merge on merge start") or later via the merge
menu "Run Regular Expression Auto Merge".
</p><p>
Automatic merge for version control history (also called "log") is also supported.
The history automerge can either run immediately when the merge starts by activating the
option "Merge version control history on merge start" or later via the merge menu
"Automatically Solve History Conflicts".
</p><p>
Usually the version control history begins with a line containing the keyword "$Log$".
This must be matched by the "History start regular expression"-option.
<span class="application">KDiff3</span> detects which subsequent lines are in the history by analysing the leading characters
that came before the "$Log$"-keyword. If the same "leading comment"-characters also appears in the following
lines, then they are also included in the history.
</p><p>
During each check-in the VCS writes a unique line specifying version-, date- and time-information
followed by lines with user comments.
These lines form one history-entry. This history section grows with every check-in and the
most recent entries appear at the top (after the history start line).
</p><p>
When for parallel development two or more developers check-in a branch of the file then
the merge history will contain several entries that appear as conflicts during the merge
of the branches. Since merging these can become very tedious, <span class="application">KDiff3</span> offers support with two
possible strategies: Just insert the history information from both contributors at the top
or sort the history information by a user defined key.
</p><p>
The just-insert-all-entries-method is easier to configure. <span class="application">KDiff3</span> just needs a method to
detect, which lines belong to one history entry. Most VCS insert an empty line after each
history entry. If there are no other empty lines, this is a sufficient criterion for <span class="application">KDiff3</span>.
Just set an empty "History entry start regular expression". If the empty line criterion
isn't sufficient, you can specify a regular expression to detect the history entry start.
</p><p>
Note that <span class="application">KDiff3</span> will remove duplicate history entrys. If a history entry appeared several times
in the history of a input file, only one entry will remain in the output.
</p><p>
If you want to sort the history, then you have to specify how the sort key should be built.
Use parentheses in the "History entry start regular expression" to group parts of the regular
expression that should later be used for the sort key.
Then specify the "History entry start sort key order" specifying a comma "," separated list of
numbers referring to the position of the group in the regular expression.
</p><p>
Because this is not so easy to get right immediately, you are able to test and improve
the regular expressions and key-generation in a dedicated dialog by pressing the
"Test your regular expressions"-button.
</p><p>Example: Assume a history that looks like this:
<pre class="screen">
/**************************************************************************
** HISTORY: $Log: \toms_merge_main_view\MyApplication\src\complexalgorithm.cpp $
**
** \main\integration_branch_12 2 Apr 2001 10:45:41 tom
** Merged branch simon_branch_15.
**
** \main\henry_bugfix_branch_7\1 30 Mar 2001 19:22:05 henry
** Improved the speed for subroutine convertToMesh().
** Fixed crash.
**************************************************************************/
</pre>
The history start line matches the regular expression ".*\$Log.*\$.*". Then follow
the history entries.
</p><p>
The line with the "$Log$"-keyword begins with two "*" after which follows a space.
<span class="application">KDiff3</span> uses the first non-white-space string as "leading comment" and assumes that
the history ends in the first line without this leading comment. In this example the
last line ends with a string that also starts with two "*", but instead of a space
character more "*" follow. Hence this line ends the history.
</p><p>
If history sorting isn't required then the history entry start line regular expression
could look like this. (This line is split in two because it wouldn't fit otherwise.)
<pre class="screen">
\s*\\main\\\S+\s+[0-9]+ (Jan|Feb|Mar|Apr|May|Jun|Jul|Aug|Sep|Oct|Nov|Dec)
[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9] [0-9][0-9]:[0-9][0-9]:[0-9][0-9]\s+.*
</pre>
For details about regular expressions please see the
<a href="http://doc.trolltech.com/3.3/qregexp.html#details" target="_top">regular expression documentation by Trolltech</a>.
Note that "\s" (with lowercase "s") matches any white space and "\S" (with uppercase "S") matches any non-white-space.
In our example the history entry start contains first the version info with reg. exp. "\\main\\\S+", the date consisting of day "[0-9]+", month "(Jan|Feb|Mar|Apr|May|Jun|Jul|Aug|Sep|Oct|Nov|Dec)" and year "[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]", the time "[0-9][0-9]:[0-9][0-9]:[0-9][0-9]" and finally the developers login name ".*".
</p><p>
Note that the "leading comment"-characters (in the example "**") will already be removed by <span class="application">KDiff3</span>
before trying to match, hence the regular expression begins with a match for none or more white-space characters "\s*".
Because comment characters can differ in each file (e.g. C/C++ uses other comment characters than a Perl script)
<span class="application">KDiff3</span> takes care of the leading comment characters and you should not specify them in the regular expression.
</p><p>
If you require a sorted history. Then the sortkey must be calculated. For this the
relevant parts in the regular expression must be grouped by parentheses.
(The extra parentheses can also stay in if history sorting is disabled.)
<pre class="screen">
\s*\\main\\(\S+)\s+([0-9]+) (Jan|Feb|Mar|Apr|May|Jun|Jul|Aug|Sep|Oct|Nov|Dec)
([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]) ([0-9][0-9]:[0-9][0-9]:[0-9][0-9])\s+(.*)
</pre>
The parentheses now contain 1. version info, 2. day, 3. month, 4. year, 5. time, 6. name.
But if we want to sort by date and time, we need to construct a key with the elements in a different order of appearance:
First the year, followed by month, day, time, version info and name. Hence the sortkey order to specify is "4,3,2,5,1,6".
</p><p>
Because month names aren't good for sorting ("Apr" would be first) <span class="application">KDiff3</span> detects in which order
the month names were given and uses that number instead ("Apr"->"04").
And if a pure number is found it will be transformed to a 4-digit value with leading zeros for sorting.
Finally the resulting sort key for the first history entry start line will be:
<pre class="screen">
2001 04 0002 10:45:41 integration_branch_12 tom
</pre>
</p><p>
For more information also see <a href="options.html#mergeoptions" title="Merge Settings">Merge Settings</a>.
</p></div></div><div style="background-color: #white; color: black; margin-top: 20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 20px;"><div style="position: absolute; left: 20px;"><a accesskey="p" href="interpretinginformation.html">Prev</a></div><div style="position: absolute; right: 20px;"><a accesskey="n" href="navigation.html">Next</a></div><div align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></div></div><div style="background-color: #white; color: black; margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 20px;"><div class="navLeft">Comparing Files And Interpreting The Information In The Input Windows </div><div class="navRight"> Navigation And Editing</div><div class="navCenter"><a accesskey="u" href="documentation.html">Up</a></div></div><br><br><div class="bannerBottom" style="background-image: url(help:/common/bottom-middle.png); background-repeat: x-repeat; width: 100%; height: 100px; bottom:0px;"><div class="BannerBottomRight"><img src="help:/common/bottom-right.png" style="margin: 0px" alt=""></div><div class="bannerBottomLeft"><img src="help:/common/bottom-left.png" style="margin: 0px;" alt=""></div><div id="comments" style="position:relative; top: 5px; left: 1em; height:85px; width: 50%; color: #cfe1f6"><p>Would you like to make a comment or contribute an update to this page?<br>
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