MERGE_MSG - Merge Commit Template With a Conflicts Block
The message template git writes into .git/MERGE_MSG when a merge stops on conflicts: one real subject line followed by a commented list of the conflicted paths and the standard advice block. Everything after the first blank line is stripped by `git commit`, so a hook that lints the whole file rejects messages git would accept.
Merge branch 'feature/retry-budget' into main
# Conflicts:
# config/service.yaml
# web/package.json
#
# It looks like you may be committing a merge.
# If this is not correct, please run
# git update-ref -d MERGE_HEAD
# and try again.
# Please enter a commit message to explain why this merge is necessary,
# especially if it merges an updated upstream into a topic branch.
#
# Lines starting with '#' will be ignored, and an empty message aborts
# the commit.
Specifications
- Seed
- 20260807
- Repository Name
- .git/MERGE_MSG
- Comment Char
- #
- Conflicted Paths
- 2
- Payload Lines
- 1
- Line Endings
- LF
- Encoding
- UTF-8
Testing contract
Expected to pass- Scenario
- Lint a commit message file that carries git's comment block below the subject.
- Expected result
- Only the first line is treated as the message; the eleven '#' lines are stripped before linting, and the two conflicted paths are recoverable from the Conflicts block.
What is a .txt file?
TXT is a plain-text file containing unformatted character data with no styling or structure beyond line breaks. Its interpretation depends on character encoding, most commonly UTF-8, and on line-ending convention. It is the most universal and portable text container.
How to use this file
Use an example TXT to test encoding detection, line-ending (LF versus CRLF) handling, and any tool that reads or streams raw text input.
How to use this file for testing
“MERGE_MSG - Merge Commit Template With a Conflicts Block” is a deterministic Novus Examples fixture for Config parsing, Visual diff / regression, Error handling. TOML and INI configuration files with nested sections and typed values — for testing config parsers and loaders.
Documented properties for this file: seed 20260807 · UTF-8 · LF. Compare results against paired or grouped companions on this page when present (clean↔damaged, searchable↔scanned, or format twins) so scores stay reproducible across runs.
Download the file once, keep the path stable in CI or local scripts, and treat the spec table as the contract: dimensions, seeds, field lists, and roles are intentional. Corrupt or invalid samples are labelled as such — expect parsers to fail loudly rather than silently accept them.
Diff and patch fixtures name their target paths and the exact edge case they exercise — rename, mode change, binary hunk, CRLF↔LF, or missing trailing newline. Apply or render them against the documented before-state; every author, path, and hash is fictional.
Point your config loader at the file and assert it reads the documented sections and typed values, including any deliberately-tricky nesting or comments.
Related files
- txtCommit Message - Breaking Change With ! and a FooterA breaking change announced twice, which the specification allows: a `!` after the scope and a `BREAKING CHANGE:` footer whose value continues onto a second line. Generators that stop a footer at the first newline lose half the sentence, and version bumpers that only look for one of the two markers under-bump the release.
- txtCommit Message - Valid Conventional Commit With TrailersA commit message file exactly as `git commit` hands it to a commit-msg hook: a conventional subject, a wrapped body, two trailers, and git's own comment block that the hook must ignore. The subject is 43 characters, comfortably inside commitlint's default 72-character header limit.
- diffCombined Diff - diff --cc With Two ParentsWhat `git show` prints for a merge commit: a `diff --cc` header, an index line naming three blobs, `@@@` hunk markers, and two prefix columns instead of one. The `++` line is the giveaway a reviewer is looking for — content that appears in the merge result but in neither parent.
- diffCombined Diff - Octopus Merge With Three ParentsAn octopus merge, so the hunk marker grows to `@@@@` and every line carries three prefix columns. Any parser that hard-codes `@@@` or assumes two columns reads the third column as the first character of the line's content.
- diffCombined Diff - Per-Parent mode LineWhen the file mode differs between the parents and the merge result, a combined diff adds a `mode a,b..result` line below the index line — a comma-separated shape that appears nowhere else in git's output. Parsers written for the single-parent `old mode`/`new mode` pair do not recognise it.
- txtMerge Conflict - diff3 Marker Style With Base SectionThe same conflict with `merge.conflictStyle=diff3`, which inserts the merge base between the two sides behind a row of pipes. Tools that split a conflict on `=======` alone silently fold the ancestor text into the ours side.
Generated by generation/version_control.py. Free for any use, no attribution required — license.