Wirebook › Glossary › Merge conflict
What is a merge conflict?
In one sentence: When two people changed the very same thing at once, so a rule or a person has to decide which change to keep.
A little more
A merge conflict happens when two changes touch the very same thing, such as both people colouring square 27 or editing the same line of code. Changes to different places can simply both be kept.
Apps choose a rule: keep the later change, keep both side by side, or stop and ask a person. Code tools such as Git mark the clashing lines so a programmer can pick.
It's a bit like… Two people both writing on the same line of a shared shopping list: someone has to decide which word stays.