Merging review files in Git

Overview

When storing review files in Git, multiple users may edit and commit the same review file.
If a conflict occurs, you have to manually resolve it and then re-commit, which is a lot of work.

What is a conflict?

It is also called a competition. When multiple users make changes to the same place, you need to decide which change to enable.

By using Git's review file merge function (LRMerge), you can eliminate this hassle and manage it in the same way as other contents.

If you want to know more about LRMerge, please watch the video below.
(We recommend that you set the video quality to 720p or higher.)

Example of operation

1. Person A and Person B each pull a review file stored in Git and add one comment each.
   
2. Person A commits the changes to Git and pushes them.
   
3. Person B commits the changes to Git and pushes them. At this point, LRMerge automatically merges the review files, and the merged file is pushed.
4. When you open the review file, the comments added by A and B have been merged, and a total of two comments have been added.

Installation

LRMerge is installed from the installer of Lightning Review 2.5 or later.

If you are using a version earlier than 2.5, install it when upgrading to 2.5.

How to check after installation

After installation, enter the following command at the command prompt.

git config --global --list

If the "merge.LRMerge.driver" item is displayed as shown in the screen below, it has been installed correctly.

How to use

No configuration is required after installation, and merging will occur automatically when a conflict occurs.

• The behavior when a conflict occurs is as follows.
  

  • If there are no changes to the same field of the same issue: The changes will be merged.
  • If the same field of the same issue is changed: The corresponding field will be overwritten with your changes.
  The same applies if you change a field other than the issue (e.g. review settings, member settings, outline, etc.).

• A string starting with the "LRMerge" logo will be output from this tool.
  This is output for each review file that was merged with this function.

• The results of conflict resolution can be confirmed from the merge log below. (Red frame)

Recommended operation method when using this function

We recommend that you operate the review file with the shared setting.
This means that even if you pull and save the review file from Git while it is open, there is no need to worry about the file reverting.
By setting it to be shared, changes made by other users will also be incorporated and reflected in the repository.

Merged by LRMerge

• The target is the review file (extension .revx).
  Intermediate files (extension .fileaccess) created while the review file is open will not be merged.
  (It will automatically disappear when the review file is closed)
• Files other than review files will be merged using the standard Git built-in merge process.

Notes

• If you install Git after installing Lightning Review, LRMerge will not work as is.
  After installing Git, perform a repair installation of Lightning Review.
  This will allow LRMerge to work.

• Some Git client tools use a different Git from the standard Git.
  If you have installed a client tool that uses a different Git from the standard Git, LRMerge will not work.
  To make LRMerge work, take the following steps.

  1. Install the standard Git.
  2. Change the settings of the Git client tool to use 1.
  3. Repair install Lightning Review.