GitoxideLabs/gitoxide · error · anyhow::Error

Tree conflicted

Error message

Tree conflicted

What it means

After performing a tree merge, unresolved conflicts remain: `has_unresolved_conflicts` was true, so the command exits with `Tree conflicted` as a non-zero-error signal. The detailed conflict list is written to stderr just before the bail. This is a controlled outcome of the merge, not an internal error.

Solutions

1. Inspect the conflict list printed on stderr and resolve each path manually
2. Re-run with different merge options or merge-base inputs
3. Abort/redo the merge using lower-level gix APIs if partial state was written

Example fix

// before
$ gix merge commit --into ref/heads/main other-branch   # exits: Tree conflicted
// after: resolve conflicts shown on stderr, then commit
$ gix status && gix merge commit --into ref/heads/main other-branch

// pre-check: attempt merge in-memory and inspect conflicts before writing
let res = repo.merge_tree(ours, theirs, base, Default::default())?;
if !res.conflicts.is_empty() {
    eprintln!("{} conflicts expected", res.conflicts.len());
}

let exit_code = match result {
    Err(e) if e.to_string() == "Tree conflicted" => {
        eprintln!("merge had unresolved conflicts; see stderr dump");
        1
    }
    other => { other?; 0 }
};

When it happens

Trigger: Running `gix merge commit` where the merge computation returns conflicts that could not be auto-resolved; the command prints `res.conflicts` to stderr and then bails.

Common situations: Merging branches with competing changes to the same paths; history rewrites merged back into a branch; automated merge pipelines hitting real content conflicts.

Related errors

• File conflicted
• Tree conflicted, refusing to write commit
• Tree conflicted
• initial hunks are never ancestors
• we prohibit this

AI-assisted analysis of GitoxideLabs/gitoxide@e73179060b (2026-09-08). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ea902f0bf9b51327. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at gitoxide-core/src/repository/merge/commit.rs:80

        let tree_id = res
            .tree
            .detach()
            .write(|tree| {
                written += 1;
                repo.write(tree)
            })
            .map_err(|err| anyhow!("{err}"))?;
        writeln!(out, "{tree_id} (wrote {written} trees)")?;
    }

    if debug {
        writeln!(err, "{:#?}", res.conflicts)?;
    }
    if !has_conflicts {
        writeln!(err, "{} possibly resolved conflicts", res.conflicts.len())?;
    }
    if has_unresolved_conflicts {
        bail!("Tree conflicted")
    }
    Ok(())
}

fn refname_and_commit(
    repo: &gix::Repository,
    revspec: BString,
) -> anyhow::Result<(Option<BString>, gix::hash::ObjectId)> {
    let spec = repo.rev_parse(revspec.as_bstr())?;
    let commit_id = spec
        .single()
        .context("Expected revspec to expand to a single rev only")?
        .object()?
        .peel_to_commit()?
        .id;
    let refname = spec.first_reference().map(|r| r.name.shorten().as_bstr().to_owned());
    Ok((refname, commit_id))
}

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