How do i abort the git merge into a merge conflict?

When you encounter a merge conflict in Git and decide not to proceed with completing the merge, you can use the following command to abort the merge process:

bash
git merge --abort

Alternatively, in older versions of Git, you may need to use:

bash
git reset --merge

Using the git merge --abort command will revert to the state before the merge began and attempt to restore the working directory and index to their pre-merge state.

If your working directory was clean (with no uncommitted changes) before the merge, then git merge --abort will return your working directory to its exact state prior to the merge. If there were uncommitted changes before the merge, those changes will remain in your working directory, but you may need to manually resolve any conflicts introduced by the merge.

For example, suppose I developed a new feature on the feature branch and now want to merge these changes into the master branch. When I run git merge feature, I encounter a conflict. I realize it's not the appropriate time to resolve these conflicts, or I decide to adopt a different strategy for integrating these changes, so I choose to abort the merge. I then run git merge --abort to return to the state before the merge and reconsider my merge strategy.

This is what you need: git reset.

Please note that git revert means something very different. For example, in Subversion, svn revert discards your uncommitted changes and reverts the file to the current version in the repository, whereas git revert 'reverts' commits.

If your Git version is 1.6.1 or higher, you can use git reset --merge.

Additionally, as noted by @Michael Johnson, if your Git version is 1.7.4 or newer, you can also use git merge --abort.

As usual, ensure no uncommitted changes exist before initiating the merge.

From the git merge manual page

git merge --abort is equivalent to git reset --merge when MERGE_HEAD is present.

MERGE_HEAD is created when the merge is in progress.

Additionally, regarding uncommitted changes when starting the merge:

If you prefer not to commit changes before starting the merge, use git stash prior to the merge and git stash pop to restore the changes after completing or aborting the merge.