Is there a "theirs" version of "git merge -s ours"?

When merging topic branch "B" into "A" using git merge, I get some conflicts. I know all the conflicts can be solved using the version in "B".

I am aware of git merge -s ours. But what I want is something like git merge -s theirs.

Why doesn't it exist? How can I achieve the same result after the conflicting merge with existing git commands? (git checkout every unmerged file from B)

The "solution" of just discarding anything from branch A (the merge commit point to B version of the tree) is not what I am looking for.

Solution 1:

A similar alternative is the --strategy-option (short form -X) option, which accepts theirs. For example:

git checkout branchA
git merge -X theirs branchB

However, this is more equivalent to -X ours than -s ours. The key difference being that -X performs a regular recursive merge, resolving any conflicts using the chosen side, whereas -s ours changes the merge to just completely ignore the other side.

In some cases, the main problem using -X theirs instead of the hypothetical -s theirs is deleted files. In this case, just run git rm with the name of any files that were deleted:

git rm {DELETED-FILE-NAME}

After that, the -X theirs may work as expected.

Of course, doing the actual removal with the git rm command will prevent the conflict from happening in the first place.

Solution 2:

A possible and tested solution for merging branchB into our checked-out branchA:

# in case branchA is not our current branch
git checkout branchA

# make merge commit but without conflicts!!
# the contents of 'ours' will be discarded later
git merge -s ours branchB    

# make temporary branch to merged commit
git branch branchTEMP         

# get contents of working tree and index to the one of branchB
git reset --hard branchB

# reset to our merged commit but 
# keep contents of working tree and index
git reset --soft branchTEMP

# change the contents of the merged commit
# with the contents of branchB
git commit --amend

# get rid off our temporary branch
git branch -D branchTEMP

# verify that the merge commit contains only contents of branchB
git diff HEAD branchB

To automate it you can wrap it into a script using branchA and branchB as arguments.

This solution preserves the first and second parent of the merge commit, just as you would expect of git merge -s theirs branchB.

Solution 3:

Older versions of git allowed you to use the "theirs" merge strategy:

git pull --strategy=theirs remote_branch

But this has since been removed, as explained in this message by Junio Hamano (the Git maintainer). As noted in the link, instead you would do this:

git fetch origin
git reset --hard origin

Beware, though, that this is different than an actual merge. Your solution is probably the option you're really looking for.

Solution 4:

It is not entirely clear what your desired outcome is, so there is some confusion about the "correct" way of doing it in the answers and their comments. I try to give an overview and see the following three options:

Try merge and use B for conflicts

This is not the "theirs version for git merge -s ours" but the "theirs version for git merge -X ours" (which is short for git merge -s recursive -X ours):

git checkout branchA
# also uses -s recursive implicitly
git merge -X theirs branchB

This is what e.g. Alan W. Smith's answer does.

Use content from B only

This creates a merge commit for both branches but discards all changes from branchA and only keeps the contents from branchB.

# Get the content you want to keep.
# If you want to keep branchB at the current commit, you can add --detached,
# else it will be advanced to the merge commit in the next step.
git checkout branchB

# Do the merge an keep current (our) content from branchB we just checked out.
git merge -s ours branchA

# Set branchA to current commit and check it out.
git checkout -B branchA

Note that the merge commits first parent now is that from branchB and only the second is from branchA. This is what e.g. Gandalf458's answer does.

Use content from B only and keep correct parent order

This is the real "theirs version for git merge -s ours". It has the same content as in the option before (i.e. only that from branchB) but the order of parents is correct, i.e. the first parent comes from branchA and the second from branchB.

git checkout branchA

# Do a merge commit. The content of this commit does not matter,
# so use a strategy that never fails.
# Note: This advances branchA.
git merge -s ours branchB

# Change working tree and index to desired content.
# --detach ensures branchB will not move when doing the reset in the next step.
git checkout --detach branchB

# Move HEAD to branchA without changing contents of working tree and index.
git reset --soft branchA

# 'attach' HEAD to branchA.
# This ensures branchA will move when doing 'commit --amend'.
git checkout branchA

# Change content of merge commit to current index (i.e. content of branchB).
git commit --amend -C HEAD

This is what Paul Pladijs's answer does (without requiring a temporary branch).

Solution 5:

I used the answer from Paul Pladijs since now. I found out, you can do a "normal" merge, conflicts occur, so you do

git checkout --theirs <file>

to resolve the conflict by using the revision from the other branch. If you do this for each file, you have the same behaviour as you would expect from

git merge <branch> -s theirs

Anyway, the effort is more than it would be with the merge-strategy! (This was tested with git version 1.8.0)