Add merge driver for changelog conflicts - #9436
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Merging branches into develop almost always conflicts in doc/CHANGES.md, because every branch adds its entries to the top of the same section. The conflicts are easily solved: both sides want to keep their entries, and the newest ones belong at the top. Add script/merge-changelog, which resolves those conflicts by keeping both sides of each conflict block, placing "theirs" (the branch being merged) before "ours" (the target branch). It runs as a git merge driver, and .gitattributes associates it with doc/CHANGES.md. The driver first attempts a standard three-way merge and only strips markers when that fails. If any markers survive it exits non-zero, so genuine conflicts still stop the merge for manual resolution. Registering the driver is a one-time step per clone: git config merge.changelog.name "Changelog merge driver" git config merge.changelog.driver "script/merge-changelog %A %O %B"
garethrees
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Aug 7, 2026
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Well TIL. Magic! 🪄
Haven't set it up or run but happy if you are. Will set it up and report any problems as new issues.
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cc/ @laurentS |
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Neat! will this break git if I checkout an older branch that does not have the script? |
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Merging branches into develop almost always conflicts in doc/CHANGES.md, because every branch adds its entries to the top of the same section.
The conflicts are easily solved: both sides want to keep their entries, and the newest ones belong at the top.
Add script/merge-changelog, which resolves those conflicts by keeping both sides of each conflict block, placing "theirs" (the branch being merged) before "ours" (the target branch). It runs as a git merge driver, and .gitattributes associates it with doc/CHANGES.md.
The driver first attempts a standard three-way merge and only strips markers when that fails. If any markers survive it exits non-zero, so genuine conflicts still stop the merge for manual resolution.
Registering the driver is a one-time step per clone:
[skip changelog]