Merge Integration with Git

Merge can be configured as a custom merge driver for Git, allowing Git to invoke Merge automatically when merging XML files instead of using Git's built-in line-based merge.

Configuration

Step 1: Configure the Git merge driver globally

Add the following to your Git global configuration (~/.gitconfig):

[merge "deltanova-merge"]
    name = deltanova XML Merge driver
    driver = java -jar /path/to/deltanova-merge-x.y.z.jar merge concurrent \
             ancestor %O local %A remote %B result.xml && cp result.xml %A
    recursive = binary

Replace /path/to/ with the actual path to your Merge JAR file.

Step 2: Configure the attributes file

Create or update the .gitattributes file in your repository root to associate XML files with the merge driver:

*.xml merge=deltanova-merge
*.dita merge=deltanova-merge
*.ditamap merge=deltanova-merge

How It Works

When Git needs to merge an XML file:

Git calls the merge driver with the ancestor (%O), local (%A), and remote (%B) versions.
Merge performs a concurrent merge of the three versions.
The result is written back to the local file (%A) that Git uses as the merge output.
If the merge is clean (no conflicts), Git marks it as resolved.
If conflicts remain (Merge leaves conflict markers via DeltaV2 attributes), Git marks the file as conflicted.

Viewing Merge Results

The merge output is a DeltaV2 XML file. To view it in a human-readable form, use the ANALYZED_DELTAV2 or SIMPLIFIED_DELTAV2 result type.

Notes

The %O, %A, %B placeholders are provided by Git and represent the ancestor, local, and remote versions respectively.
The merge driver must produce a non-zero exit code to signal a merge conflict to Git.
The initial release of the Merge REST API does not support formatting elements.