Undoing a Merge in Git with git merge --abort

In the last blog, we saw how to resolve conflicts manually. But what if you start a merge, get conflicts, and then realize — “I don’t want to solve this right now. I just want to go back to the way things were before the merge.”

That’s exactly where git merge --abort helps. Let’s walk through a scenario step by step.

Creating the Scenario

Start with a clean project:

git branch feature2

This creates a new branch feature2. Now stay on main and modify hello.txt:

echo "New line added in main again" >> hello.txt
git add hello.txt
git commit -m "Main branch update"

Switch to feature2 and also modify the same file:

git switch feature2
echo "New line added in feature2" >> hello.txt
git add hello.txt
git commit -m "Feature2 update"

Now both main and feature2 have different commits on the same file.

Triggering the Conflict

Switch back to main and try to merge:

git switch main
git merge feature2

Result:

Auto-merging hello.txt
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in hello.txt
Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.

Check the file:

cat hello.txt

Output will show conflict markers:

Hello World
<<<<<<< HEAD
New line added in main again
=======
New line added in feature2
>>>>>>> feature2

Undoing the Merge

If you don’t want to resolve this conflict now, abort the merge:

git merge --abort

This takes you back to the exact state before the merge. Check hello.txt again:

cat hello.txt
# Hello World
# New line added in main again

Everything is clean again on main, and the conflict is gone.

Why git merge --abort is Important

  • Safely reverts back to pre-merge state.
  • Useful when you realize mid-merge that something went wrong.
  • Prevents committing messy or unintended conflict resolutions.

Summary

  • Run git merge feature2 → conflict occurs.
  • Instead of resolving, use git merge --abort.
  • Git resets you back to the state before the merge.
  • Extremely useful for avoiding mistakes in real-world projects.

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