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I have a git branch (called v4), that was made from master just yesterday. There were a couple of changes to master, that I want to get into v4. So, in v4, I tried to do a rebase from master, and one file keeps screwing things up: a one-line text file, that contains the version number. This file is app/views/common/version.txt, which before rebasing contains this text:

v1.4-alpha-02

Here's what I'm doing:

> git rebase master
First, rewinding head to replay your work on top of it...
Applying: new version, new branch
error: patch failed: app/views/common/version.txt:1
error: app/views/common/version.txt: patch does not apply
Using index info to reconstruct a base tree...
Falling back to patching base and 3-way merge...
Auto-merging app/views/common/version.txt
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in app/views/common/version.txt
Failed to merge in the changes.
Patch failed at 0001 new version, new branch

When you have resolved this problem run "git rebase --continue".
If you would prefer to skip this patch, instead run "git rebase --skip".
To restore the original branch and stop rebasing run "git rebase --abort".

The version.txt now looks like this:

<<<<<<< HEAD:app/views/common/version.txt
v1.4-alpha-02
=======
v1.4-alpha-01
>>>>>>> new version, new branch:app/views/common/version.txt

So, I tidy it up and it looks like this now:

v1.4-alpha-02

and then I tried to carry on: at first I try a commit:

> git commit -a -m "merged"
# Not currently on any branch.
nothing to commit (working directory clean)

No luck there. So, I was trying to add the file:

git add app/views/common/version.txt

No response. No news is good news, I guess. So, I try to continue:

> git rebase --continue
Applying: new version, new branch
No changes - did you forget to use 'git add'?

When you have resolved this problem run "git rebase --continue".
If you would prefer to skip this patch, instead run "git rebase --skip".
To restore the original branch and stop rebasing run "git rebase --abort".

It's at this point, after going round and round with this, that I'm banging my head off the desk.

What's going on here? What am I doing wrong? Can anyone set me straight?

EDIT - for unutbu

I changed the file as you suggested and get the same error:

> git rebase master
First, rewinding head to replay your work on top of it...
Applying: new version, new branch
error: patch failed: app/views/common/version.txt:1
error: app/views/common/version.txt: patch does not apply
Using index info to reconstruct a base tree...
Falling back to patching base and 3-way merge...
Auto-merging app/views/common/version.txt
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in app/views/common/version.txt
Failed to merge in the changes.
Patch failed at 0001 new version, new branch

When you have resolved this problem run "git rebase --continue".
If you would prefer to skip this patch, instead run "git rebase --skip".
To restore the original branch and stop rebasing run "git rebase --abort".
Alex.K.
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Max Williams
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    thanks for asking this question .. i was facing the exact same problem – Archan Mishra Jan 20 '12 at 10:08
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    would be nice if you confirm some answer – holms Aug 03 '12 at 19:34
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    @MaxWilliams, I think you (like me) have misinterpreted [@unutbu](http://stackoverflow.com/a/4033058/277826)'s advice: 1) first you run `git rebase master` _and let it fail_; 2) then you edit `version.txt` and make it as it should look at that point, and save the edit; 3) then you `git add .../version.txt`; 4) then you do `git rebase --continue` (_**not** 'commit'_)! If `rebase --continue` succeeds here, _it is already committed_ (no need for `git commit` here!) - so all that is left to do is `git push` (if you use a remote repo). Hope this helps, if I got it right `:)` - cheers! – sdaau Apr 23 '13 at 18:18
  • @MaxWilliams, did you ever get an answer for this: https://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/187288 ( I will promptly delete this after a reply if someone else doesn't get there first!!) – atw Feb 25 '16 at 12:21

6 Answers6

105

I encountered a similar problem with a rebase. My problem was caused because one of my commit only changed a file, and when resolving, I discarded the change introduced in this commit. I was able to solve my problem by skipping the corresponding commit (git rebase --skip).

You can reproduce this problem in a test repository. First create the repository.

$ mkdir failing-merge
$ cd failing-merge
$ git init
Initialized empty Git repository in $HOME/failing-merge/.git/

Then commit the original content of version.txt in master.

$ echo v1.4-alpha-02 > version.txt
$ git add version.txt
$ git commit -m initial
[master (root-commit) 2eef0a5] initial
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 version.txt

Create the v4 branch and change the content of version.txt.

$ git checkout -b v4
Switched to a new branch 'v4'
$ echo v1.4-alpha-03 > version.txt
$ git add version.txt
$ git commit -m v4
[v4 1ef8c9b] v4
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

Go back to master and change the content of version.txt so that there will be a conflit during the rebase.

$ git checkout master
Switched to branch 'master'
$ echo v1.4-alpha-04 > version.txt
$ git add version.txt
$ git commit -m master
[master 7313eb3] master
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

Switch back to v4 branch and try to rebase. It fails with a conflit in version.txt as planned.

$ git checkout v4
Switched to branch 'v4'
$ git rebase master
First, rewinding head to replay your work on top of it...
Applying: v4
Using index info to reconstruct a base tree...
Falling back to patching base and 3-way merge...
Auto-merging version.txt
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in version.txt
Recorded preimage for 'version.txt'
Failed to merge in the changes.
Patch failed at 0001 v4

When you have resolved this problem run "git rebase --continue".
If you would prefer to skip this patch, instead run "git rebase --skip".
To restore the original branch and stop rebasing run "git rebase --abort".
$ cat version.txt
<<<<<<< HEAD
v1.4-alpha-04
=======
v1.4-alpha-03
>>>>>>> v4

We resolve the conflict by selecting the master content of version.txt. We add the file and try to continue our rebase.

$ echo v1.4-alpha-04 > version.txt
$ git add version.txt
$ git rebase --continue 
Applying: v4
No changes - did you forget to use 'git add'?
If there is nothing left to stage, chances are that something else
already introduced the same changes; you might want to skip this patch.

When you have resolved this problem run "git rebase --continue".
If you would prefer to skip this patch, instead run "git rebase --skip".
To restore the original branch and stop rebasing run "git rebase --abort".

It fails ! Let's see what changes git think there is in our repository.

$ git status
# Not currently on any branch.
nothing to commit (working directory clean)

Ah ah, there is no change. If you read in detail the previous error message, git informed us of this and recommended to use git rebase --skip. He told us "If there is nothing left to stage, chances are that something else already introduced the same changes; you might want to skip this patch." So we just skip the commit and the rebase succeed.

$ git rebase --skip
HEAD is now at 7313eb3 master

Word of caution: Please note that git rebase --skip will completely drop the commit that git tried to rebase. In our case, this should be okay since git is complaining this is an empty commit. If you think you've lost changes once the rebase is complete, you can use git reflog to get the commit id of your repository before the rebase, and use git reset --hard to get your depot back in that state (this is another destructive operation).

Sylvain Defresne
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    Thanks for taking the time to write that lengthy explanation Sylvain! That does make it clearer. I think i was always just nervous of skipping a patch as it felt like work could get lost: ie that the patch involved all the files affected by the rebase, rather than just the one with the conflict. Is a patch just a single merge on a single file then? – Max Williams Feb 01 '11 at 09:25
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    No, a patch contains all the difference on all the files modified in a single commit. But when using `git rebase --skip`, you only skip a single commit. I generally issue a `git status` before skipping a commit to see if I am in this situation. – Sylvain Defresne Feb 01 '11 at 13:41
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    I just wanted to echo Max in saying thanks for taking the time to write up a great explanation—I finally understand why this is happening. I'm also no longer scared of `rebase --skip` :). – Ben Dolman Dec 13 '11 at 18:25
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    Warning - if you have several changes in one commit, you may lose work doing git rebase --skip. I just did – Chrissy H Feb 07 '13 at 17:02
  • @ChrissyH Unless you did a `git reflog purge` or `git reflog delete` you can still get your changes back by using `git reflog`. Try to checkout the different commit that are referenced there, one of them should be the state of your tree before you started the whole `git rebase`. – Sylvain Defresne Feb 07 '13 at 18:46
  • @SylvainDefresne, Btw regarding *"chances are that something else already introduced the same changes"*, what exactly is that "something else" here? **Is this a Git bug?** (`git rebase --skip` sidesteps the issue, but doesn't solve it.) – Pacerier Oct 16 '15 at 10:32
23

Quoting from here: http://wholemeal.co.nz/node/9

Huh?!? No, I didn't forget to use git add, I did it ... like ... 2 seconds ago!

Turns out that because there is no change from the patch git suspects something has gone wrong. Git expects a patch to have been applied, but the file has remained unchanged.

The error message is not very intuitive, but it does contain the answer. We just need to tell rebase to skip this patch. It's also not necessary to fix the conflict markers in the file. You will end up with the file version from the branch you are rebasing on.

$ git rebase --skip
Bijou Trouvaille
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  • After I used git mergetool and fixed the changes, then added them and committed them, I simply entered git rebase --skip while 'Not currently in any branch.' And everything was fixed. Thanks! – geerlingguy Jan 24 '12 at 16:49
  • Actually, I think it was a combination of continually running git mergetool, then git rebase --continue, then git mergetool, etc. that finally fixed my situation. – geerlingguy Jan 25 '12 at 23:36
6

That error message is a result of your git commit -a -m "merged". If you just fix up the file, then run git add <file>, and git rebase --continue, it should work fine. git rebase --continue is trying to do a commit, but finding that there are no pending changes to commit (because you committed them already).

twalberg
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    This seems a good deal more reasonable than doing a skip, at least in the general case. I'm surprised it's not listed as the best answer. – EmeraldD. Mar 28 '14 at 14:44
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    @EmeraldD., Doesn't work. Fixing the file and running `git add ` won't solve the problem. `git rebase --continue` **still** reports *`No changes - did you forget to use 'git add'?`* – Pacerier Oct 16 '15 at 10:35
6

Change app/views/common/version.txt to 

v1.4-alpha-01

At this point in the rebase, remember that you are resolving merge conflicts to show the progression of the non-master branch.

So, in rebasing from

      A---B---C topic
     /
D---E---F---G master

to

              A*--B*--C* topic
             /
D---E---F---G master

the conflict you are resolving is in how to create A* on the topic branch.

So after doing git rebase --abort, the commands should be

git checkout topic
git rebase master
< make edits to resolve conflicts >
git add .
git rebase --continue
unutbu
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4

The behavior you're seeing is not what I would expect from a typical rebase with just this conflict. Consider using a separate branch to do this rebase (especially if you've already pushed the commits remotely that you're fast-forwarding). Also, git mergetool can be helpful for resolving conflicts and remembering to issue a git add.

In this minimal example, the rebase works as expected. Can you provide an example that shows the behavior you're seeing?

#!/bin/bash

cd /tmp
mkdir rebasetest
cd rebasetest
git init
echo 'v1.0' > version.txt
git add version.txt
git commit -m 'initial commit'
git checkout -b v4
echo 'v1.4-alpha-01' > version.txt
git add version.txt
git commit -m 'created v4'
git checkout master
git merge v4
echo 'v1.4-alpha-01-rc1' > version.txt
git add version.txt
git commit -m 'upped version on master to v1.4-alpha-01-rc1'
git checkout v4
echo 'v1.4-alpha-02' > version.txt
git add version.txt
git commit -m 'starting work on alpha-02'

git rebase master
echo 'v1.4-alpha-02' > version.txt
git add version.txt
git rebase --continue
Ben Taitelbaum
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4

Here are some ideas:

Adam Monsen
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