How can I merge two branches without losing any files?

Question

I have two branches with the following files in there:

branch a:

file_a
file_b
file_c

branch b:

file_a
file_d
file_e

I want to merge them, so that I get both files from a and b (and files that exist in both should normally be merged)! is that possbile?

Answer 1

this might help: http://book.git-scm.com/3_basic_branching_and_merging.html

in your case you would do the following:

• git checkout a (you will switch to branch a)
• git merge b (this will merge all changes from branch b into branch a)
• git commit -a (this will commit your changes)

take a look at above link to get the full picture.

another very useful resource is this:

• http://progit.org/book/

and especially regarding your question:

• http://progit.org/book/ch3-2.html