[PATCH v2 2/3] mergetools/p4merge: create a base if none available

[Kevin Bracey <kevin@bracey.fi>]

Originally, with no base, Git gave P4Merge $LOCAL as a dummy base:

   p4merge "$LOCAL" "$LOCAL" "$REMOTE" "$MERGED"

Commit 0a0ec7bd changed this to:

   p4merge "empty file" "$LOCAL" "$REMOTE" "$MERGED"

to avoid the problem of being unable to save in some circumstances with
similar inputs.

Unfortunately this approach produces much worse results on differing
inputs. P4Merge really regards the blank file as the base, and once you
have just a couple of differences between the two branches you end up
with one a massive full-file conflict. The 3-way diff is not readable,
and you have to invoke "difftool MERGE_HEAD HEAD" manually to get a
useful view.

The original approach appears to have invoked special 2-way merge
behaviour in P4Merge that occurs only if the base filename is "" or
equal to the left input.  You get a good visual comparison, and it does
not auto-resolve differences. (Normally if one branch matched the base,
it would autoresolve to the other branch).

But there appears to be no way of getting this 2-way behaviour and being
able to reliably save. Having base==left appears to be triggering other
assumptions. There are tricks the user can use to force the save icon
on, but it's not intuitive.

So we now follow a suggestion given in the original patch's discussion:
generate a virtual base, consisting of the lines common to the two
branches. This is the same as the technique used in resolve and octopus
merges, so we relocate that code to a shared function.

Note that if there are no differences at the same location, this
technique can lead to automatic resolution without conflict, combining
everything from the 2 files.  As with the other merges using this
technique, we assume the user will inspect the result before saving.

Signed-off-by: Kevin Bracey <kevin@bracey.fi>
---
 git-merge-one-file.sh | 18 +++++-------------
 git-sh-setup.sh       | 13 +++++++++++++
 mergetools/p4merge    |  6 +++++-
 3 files changed, 23 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)

diff --git a/git-merge-one-file.sh b/git-merge-one-file.sh
index f612cb8..1236fbf 100755
--- a/git-merge-one-file.sh
+++ b/git-merge-one-file.sh
@@ -104,30 +104,22 @@ case "${1:-.}${2:-.}${3:-.}" in
 		;;
 	esac
 
-	src2=`git-unpack-file $3`
+	src1=$(git-unpack-file $2)
+	src2=$(git-unpack-file $3)
 	case "$1" in
 	'')
 		echo "Added $4 in both, but differently."
-		# This extracts OUR file in $orig, and uses git apply to
-		# remove lines that are unique to ours.
-		orig=`git-unpack-file $2`
-		sz0=`wc -c <"$orig"`
-		@@DIFF@@ -u -La/$orig -Lb/$orig $orig $src2 | git apply --no-add
-		sz1=`wc -c <"$orig"`
-
-		# If we do not have enough common material, it is not
-		# worth trying two-file merge using common subsections.
-		expr $sz0 \< $sz1 \* 2 >/dev/null || : >$orig
+		orig=$(git-unpack-file $2)
+		create_virtual_base "$orig" "$src1" "$src2"
 		;;
 	*)
 		echo "Auto-merging $4"
-		orig=`git-unpack-file $1`
+		orig=$(git-unpack-file $1)
 		;;
 	esac
 
 	# Be careful for funny filename such as "-L" in "$4", which
 	# would confuse "merge" greatly.
-	src1=`git-unpack-file $2`
 	git merge-file "$src1" "$orig" "$src2"
 	ret=$?
 	msg=
diff --git a/git-sh-setup.sh b/git-sh-setup.sh
index 795edd2..aa9a732 100644
--- a/git-sh-setup.sh
+++ b/git-sh-setup.sh
@@ -249,6 +249,19 @@ clear_local_git_env() {
 	unset $(git rev-parse --local-env-vars)
 }
 
+# Generate a virtual base file for a two-file merge. On entry the
+# base file $1 should be a copy of $2. Uses git apply to remove
+# lines from $1 that are not in $3, leaving only common lines.
+create_virtual_base() {
+	sz0=$(wc -c <"$1")
+	@@DIFF@@ -u -La/"$1" -Lb/"$1" "$2" "$3" | git apply --no-add
+	sz1=$(wc -c <"$1")
+
+	# If we do not have enough common material, it is not
+	# worth trying two-file merge using common subsections.
+	expr $sz0 \< $sz1 \* 2 >/dev/null || : >"$1"
+}
+
 
 # Platform specific tweaks to work around some commands
 case $(uname -s) in
diff --git a/mergetools/p4merge b/mergetools/p4merge
index 46b3a5a..16ae0cc 100644
--- a/mergetools/p4merge
+++ b/mergetools/p4merge
@@ -21,7 +21,11 @@ diff_cmd () {
 
 merge_cmd () {
 	touch "$BACKUP"
-	$base_present || >"$BASE"
+	if ! $base_present
+	then
+		cp -- "$LOCAL" "$BASE"
+		create_virtual_base "$BASE" "$LOCAL" "$REMOTE"
+	fi
 	"$merge_tool_path" "$BASE" "$REMOTE" "$LOCAL" "$MERGED"
 	check_unchanged
 }
-- 
1.8.2.rc3.7.g77aeedb