Re-adding Deleted Code as Part of a Merge

Question

I have branch A on which, among other change, a line of code was deleted.

Branch A was merged into demo. Said line of code need to be added back into demo.

So on branch A, I added the code back in and commit the change. But when I merge branch A back into demo, the line of code is not added back into demo.

I believe this has to do with the fact that Branch A has no record of the line ever being changed so it won't reintroduce the deleted code. How do I re-add the deleted code to demo as part of merging branch A?

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 25 '17 at 17:32

The behavior you describe should not occur. Adding the files to the branch and re-merging is a correct procedure.

Git doesn't know or care that you're "re-introducing" code; to git files are added, and that itself is a change. So the fact that files with the same name and content were earlier deleted, or that they hadn't been otherwise modified on the branch, or anything else... doesn't matter. You're introducing a whole bunch of concepts that don't really exist, and complicating your view of what git does.

You had

O --- x --- x --- x <--(master)
 \
  A --- B --- C --- D <--(branch)

and maybe A deleted foo/*. You merged

O --- x -- x --- x -- M <--(master)
 \                   /
  A --- B --- C --- D <--(branch)

and now the deletion of foo/* was carried into M. To fix this you add a commit to branch

O --- x -- x --- x -- M <--(master)
 \                   /
  A --- B --- C --- D --- E <--(branch)

and E creates files at foo/*. If you merge this to master:

O --- x -- x --- x -- M --- M2 <--(master)
 \                   /     /
  A --- B --- C --- D --- E <--(branch)

the merge base is D. Only D, E, and M are examined to produce M2. Because M doesn't do anything at foo/*, while E creates files at foo/*, M2 will get the files. The history before D doesn't matter.

This is documented behavior which has worked in numerous tests for countless users, so I would advise that you re-check your work and make sure you re-added and merged in the way you describe.

Re-adding Deleted Code as Part of a Merge

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