Conflicts

What is a Conflict?
A conflict is a signal to a user that a merge has produced a database that requires further action. The merge algorithm could not infer the state of the database based on the merge rules after the merge. Further input is required to tell Dolt what the resulting merged database should contain.
In Dolt, conflicts can occur on schema and data.
Data
On data, conflicts are detected on a cell-level. If two operations modify the same row, column pair to be different values, a conflict is detected.
Schema
For schema, conflict detection is more complicated. The following rules are used to detect conflicts in schema:
1.If two branches add the same table, no conflict.
2.If two branches add a similarly named table that has different schema, conflict.
3.If the two merged branches add two differently named columns to the same table, no conflict.
4.If the two merged branches add similarly named columns to the same table with the same data, no conflict.
5.If the two merged branches add similarly named columns in the same table with different data, conflict.
6.If one branch deletes a column and the other branch does not modify that column in the same table, no conflict.
7.If one branch deletes a column and the other branch modifies that column in the same table, conflict.
8.If the two branches alter a column similarly in the same table, no conflict.
9.If two branches alter a column differently in the same table, conflict.
How to use Conflicts
Conflicts signal to the user that a merge is risky. In the event of a conflict, you can either redo the changes on the tip of the branch you are merging into or resolve the conflicts.
In the case of conflict resolution Dolt supports two automated resolution strategies, ours or theirs. You can choose to keep the state of schema or data on the branch you are on or the branch you are merging.
If you would like to manually resolve conflicts, you can set the value of the row that has the conflict to whatever you would like and then resolve the conflict by deleting the corresponding conflict row in dolt_conflicts_<tablename>.
Difference between Git conflicts and Dolt conflicts
Conflicts are a major divergence from Git in Dolt. Conceptually, Dolt and Git conflicts are similar, but in practice Dolt the Dolt conflict management workflow and user interface is very different.
In Dolt, conflicts are stored in the dolt_conflicts set of tables. Each table in your database has an associated dolt_conflicts table. For instance if you have a table named docs, there is a system table named dolt_conflicts_docs. This replaces the >>> and <<< syntax that is inserted into your files in Git when conflicts occur.
Dolt conflicts can occur on schema or data. In Git, conflicts can only occur on lines in files. So Dolt has two types of conflicts whereas Git has one type.
In the case of foreign keys, Dolt can produce invalid merges even after conflicts are resolved. In Dolt, this merge will not be able to be committed until the foreign key violations are resolved. In Git, a repository with no conflict markers is a valid repository and can be committed.
Example
Generating a Conflict
docs $ dolt sql -q "select * from docs"
+----+----+
| pk | c1 |
+----+----+
| 0  | 0  |
| 1  | 1  |
| 2  | 2  |
+----+----+
docs $ dolt branch make-conflicts
docs $ dolt sql -q "update docs set c1=10 where pk=1"
Query OK, 1 row affected
Rows matched: 1  Changed: 1  Warnings: 0
docs $ dolt sql -q "select * from docs"
+----+----+
| pk | c1 |
+----+----+
| 0  | 0  |
| 1  | 10 |
| 2  | 2  |
+----+----+
docs $ dolt add docs
docs $ dolt commit -m "Made pk=1, c1=10"
commit jjkqslpnbbvjh7efdhcsqdh68ekl0leb
Author: Tim Sehn <[email protected]>
Date:   Mon Dec 06 16:40:12 -0800 2021
​
	Made pk=1, c1=10
​
docs $ dolt checkout make-conflicts
Switched to branch 'make-conflicts'
docs $ dolt sql -q "select * from docs"
+----+----+
| pk | c1 |
+----+----+
| 0  | 0  |
| 1  | 1  |
| 2  | 2  |
+----+----+
docs $ dolt sql -q "update docs set c1=0 where pk=1"
Query OK, 1 row affected
Rows matched: 1  Changed: 1  Warnings: 0
docs $ dolt sql -q "select * from docs"
+----+----+
| pk | c1 |
+----+----+
| 0  | 0  |
| 1  | 0  |
| 2  | 2  |
+----+----+
docs $ dolt add docs
docs $ dolt commit -m "Made pk=1, c1=0"
commit 5gmleh5ksmtsdeeaqeagpsitpug4ntoj
Author: Tim Sehn <[email protected]>
Date:   Mon Dec 06 16:40:54 -0800 2021
​
	Made pk=1, c1=0
​
docs $ dolt checkout main
Switched to branch 'main'
docs $ dolt merge make-conflicts
Updating jjkqslpnbbvjh7efdhcsqdh68ekl0leb..5gmleh5ksmtsdeeaqeagpsitpug4ntoj
Auto-merging docs
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in docs
Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.
docs $ dolt conflicts cat docs
+-----+--------+----+----+
|     |        | pk | c1 |
+-----+--------+----+----+
|     | base   | 1  | 1  |
|  *  | ours   | 1  | 10 |
|  *  | theirs | 1  | 0  |
+-----+--------+----+----+
Resolving a Conflict
docs $ dolt conflicts cat docs
+-----+--------+----+----+
|     |        | pk | c1 |
+-----+--------+----+----+
|     | base   | 1  | 1  |
|  *  | ours   | 1  | 10 |
|  *  | theirs | 1  | 0  |
+-----+--------+----+----+
docs $ dolt conflicts resolve --ours docs
docs $ dolt conflicts cat docs
docs $ dolt sql -q "select * from docs"
+----+----+
| pk | c1 |
+----+----+
| 0  | 0  |
| 1  | 10 |
| 2  | 2  |
+----+----+
docs $ dolt add docs
docs $ dolt commit -m "Resolved conflict"
commit c8mff2tp5b3tg4j4u07dnmp912btltim
Merge: jjkqslpnbbvjh7efdhcsqdh68ekl0leb 5gmleh5ksmtsdeeaqeagpsitpug4ntoj
Author: Tim Sehn <[email protected]>
Date:   Mon Dec 06 16:44:22 -0800 2021
​
	Resolved conflict

Merge

Remotes

Last modified 2mo ago

Export as PDF

Copy link

Edit on GitHub

Outline

Difference between Git conflicts and Dolt conflicts

Example

Generating a Conflict

Resolving a Conflict