git - How do I finish the merge after resolving my merge conflicts?

Question

I've read the Basic Branching and Merging section of the Git Community Book.

So I follow it and create one branch: experimental.

Then I:

1. switch to experimental branch (git checkout experimental)
2. make a bunch of changes
3. commit it (git commit -a)
4. switch to master branch (git checkout master)
5. make some changes and commit there
6. switch back to experimental (git checkout experimental)
7. merge master change to experimental (git merge master)

8. there are some conflicts but after I resolve them, I did 'git add myfile'

9. And now i am stuck, I can't move back to master

when I do

 $ git checkout master
error: Entry 'res/layout/my_item.xml' would be overwritten by merge. Cannot merge.

and I did:

$ git rebase --abort

No rebase in progress?

and I did :

$  git add res/layout/socialhub_list_item.xml
$ git checkout master
error: Entry 'res/layout/my_item.xml' would be overwritten by merge. Cannot merge.

What can I do so that I can go back to my master branch?

Answer 1

When there is a conflict during a merge, you have to finish the merge commit manually. It sounds like you've done the first two steps, to edit the files that conflicted and then run git add on them to mark them as resolved. Finally, you need to actually commit the merge with git commit. At that point you will be able to switch branches again.

Quick Tip: You can use git commit -am "your commit message" to perform add and commit operations on tracked files simultaneously. (Credit: @vaheeds)