Git concepts: conflict

A conflict in Git occurs when two or more developers make changes to the same line of code in the same file, or when a developer deletes a file while another developer is modifying it. Git cannot automatically determine what is correct. Conflicts most often occur during a 'merge' or a 'rebase' operation.

When a conflict happens, Git will pause the process and give you a chance to resolve the conflicts. The conflicted file will contain standard conflict-resolution markers (<<<<<<<, =======, >>>>>>>) that you can search for to identify the areas in conflict.

Here's an example:

<<<<<<< HEAD
This is your change
=======
This is the change from the branch you're merging
>>>>>>> branch-name

To resolve the conflict, you manually edit the file to fix the conflicting changes, and then you add the resolved file to the staging area using 'git add'. After resolving all conflicts and staging the changes, you would continue your merge or rebase process.

In summary, a conflict in Git is a situation that arises when changes from different branches cannot be merged cleanly. Git needs human intervention to decide which changes to keep.