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The fatal: refusing to merge histories error is a fairly common Git error. It appears when a developer tries to merge two unrelated projects into a single branch.
fatal: refusing to merge histories
This error appears when the branch has its commit histories and tags incompatible with the pull request or clone.
This is part of a series of articles about Git Errors.
Here are some common scenarios where fatal: refusing to merge unrelated histories can occur.
fatal: refusing to merge unrelated histories
.git
HEAD
Itiel Shwartz
Co-Founder & CTO
In my experience, here are tips that can help you better resolve and prevent the `fatal: refusing to merge unrelated histories` error:
Ensure both repositories share a common ancestor before merging to avoid unrelated history conflicts.
Regularly check the `.git` directory for corruption, which can cause merging issues.
Maintain frequent backups of your repositories to facilitate recovery in case of errors.
Adopt a consistent branching strategy to minimize unrelated histories by ensuring clear lineage in your development workflow.
Before merging, perform a dry run (`–dry-run`) to identify potential conflicts without making changes.
There are two ways of solving the fatal: refusing to merge unrelated histories error.
One way to solve the issue is to use the --allow-unrelated-histories git flag.
--allow-unrelated-histories
Here the git command will look something like this: git pull origin master --allow-unrelated-histories.
git pull origin master --allow-unrelated-histories
You can substitute origin with the remote repository you are pulling from. You can also replace the master branch with whatever branch you want the pull request to merge into.
origin
master
The idea behind --allow-unrelated-histories is that git lets you merge unrelated branches. This git flag works seamlessly when there are no file conflicts.
However, in reality, at least one thing pops up, and you will need to use the normal Git resolution flow to resolve them.
Here is an example of what a common conflict may look like when trying to merge branches:
Auto-merging package.json CONFLICT (add/add): Merge conflict in package.json Auto-merging package-lock.json CONFLICT (add/add): Merge conflict in package-lock.json Auto-merging README.md CONFLICT (add/add): Merge conflict in README.md Auto-merging .gitignore CONFLICT (add/add): Merge conflict in .gitignore Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.
The alternative (and longer) way of fixing the fatal: refusing to merge unrelated histories issues is to unstage your current commits, stash them, clone your required remote repository, and then place your stashed branch contents into the new clone.
This will ensure that any conflicts that you may encounter in the code are addressed before merging and prevent application errors from occurring.To unstage all the files in your last commit, use the following git command: git reset HEAD~.
git reset HEAD~
To stash your unsaved files, use the following git command: git stash.
git stash
This will give you a clean working tree to pull your remote repository into. Once you’ve successfully pulled into your branch, you can unstash your files, commit them as a separate commit and resolve any file conflicts that you may have.
To unstash your files, use git pop. This will move the changes stashed and reapplies them to your current working copy.
git pop
Alternatively, you can use git stash apply to add the changes to your current working copy of code.
git stash apply
Here is a quick summary of differences between git stash apply and <code”>git pop:
The easiest way to prevent the fatal: refusing to merge unrelated histories error is to avoid pulling remote repositories into branches that already have commits on them.However, sometimes you just want to keep the commits. One way to prevent the error is to create a brand new branch, pull your required code in, and then manually merge your local branch into your main flow.
Here is a git example of the flow:
# branch A is where your current code is # clone in your remote repo into a new and separate branch. # For our purposes, it's branch B git clone -b [branch] [remote_repo] # to merge A into B, you need to be on B # merge your branches together git merge A
The only thing about merges is that if there is a conflict in the code, there is no way around it other than resolving it as usual.Here’s what your merge branch looks like on Git:
C1---C2---C3 branch A Ca---Cb---Cc---Ce---Cf branch B
Related content: Read our guide to failed to push some refs to and fatal remote origin already exists.
The above guide should help you through the troubleshooting steps you need to follow in order to resolve the fatal: refusing to merge unrelated histories Git error.
This is, of course, just one of many Git errors that you may come across in your K8s logs. Such deceptively minor and often easy-to-miss issues can cause serious issues and detecting them could be time-consuming, stressful, and often downright impossible.
This is why we created Komodor. Acting as a single source of truth (SSOT), Komodor streamlines and shortens k8s troubleshooting processes. Built by devs for devs, Komodor offers:
If you are interested in checking out Komodor, use this link to sign up for a Free Trial.
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