jj-diffconflicts is a merge tool for the Jujutsu version control system that runs in Neovim.
It provides a two-way diff interface to resolve merge conflicts.
It is heavily inspired by Seth House's diffconflicts plugin, which provides the same functionality for the Git and Mercurial version control systems.
For explanations about why a two-way diff based on conflict markers might be more effective than a standard 3-way diff that compares file content, you can consult the following resources:
- The "Why?" section of the README of
whiteinge/diffconflicts. - A short video demonstrating how it works, and how it helps honing on the relevant differences between the conflicted sides.
- An article contrasting how different tools handle the same conflict.
But perhaps the best way is to try it yourself.
jj-diffconflicts requires Neovim v0.10.0 or above.
It can be installed like any other Neovim plugin.
Documentation is available through :help jj-diffconflicts.
When a buffer with conflict markers is loaded, the merge resolution UI can be invoked through the :JJDiffConflicts command.
This will open a two-way diff in vertical splits that highlights the changes between the two sides of the conflict.
To resolve the conflict, edit the left side until it contains the desired changes.
Then save it and exit Neovim with :qa.
If you want to abort without resolving the conflict, exit Neovim with :cq instead.
To configure as a merge tool in Jujutsu, add the following to your Jujutsu configuration:
[merge-tools.diffconflicts]
program = "nvim"
merge-args = ["-c", "JJDiffConflicts!", "$output", "$base", "$left", "$right"]
merge-tool-edits-conflict-markers = trueIt can then be invoked with jj resolve --tool diffconflicts.
This uses the :JJDiffConflicts! variant of the command.
It works the same way as the base command.
But it also opens a history view in a separate tab that contains a 3-way diff between the two sides of the conflict and their common ancestor.
This can be useful to better understand how the two sides of the conflicts diverged, and can help with deciding which changes to keep on the left side of the two-way diff.
If you don't want to use the history view, you can instead set merge-args to ["-c", "JJDiffConflicts", "$output"].
The make-conflicts.sh script creates a Jujutsu repository in the testrepo directory whose working copy has two conflicted files.
It can be used to try jj-diffconflicts (or any other merge tool).
The first file is fruits.txt, which contains the merge conflict described in the Conflicts section of Jujutsu's documentation.
The second file is poem.txt, which contains a tricky merge conflict.
When resolving it, one should keep in mind the points from the merge tools benchmarks to judge its effectiveness.
The plugin includes a health check to detect potential issues that would prevent it from functioning properly.
It can be invoked with :checkhealth jj-diffconflicts.
- It hasn't yet been used on a wide range of conflicts, so it's possible that it doesn't handle some situations very well (for example, multiple conflicts in the same file).
- It can only resolve one conflict at a time. When there are multiple conflicts, it will have to be invoked repeatedly until all of them have been addressed.
- It can only handle 2-sided conflicts (but this is also a limitation of
jj resolve). - Jujutsu is still evolving, so future versions could bring changes that the plugin can't handle yet. For example, conflict markers were changed between v0.17 and v0.18.
Caveat emptor
