Conflicts

A conflict happens only when both sides changed the same region differently. Everything else merges silently — most merges have no conflict at all.

When one does, git puts both versions in the file between markers, and puts three versions in the index: stage 1 is the common ancestor, stage 2 is yours, stage 3 is theirs. `git status` reads those stages to tell you what kind of conflict it is.

Resolving means editing the file, removing the markers, and staging it — staging is how you tell git the answer. `git merge --abort` puts everything back exactly as it was, at any point before you commit.