Error: the following untracked working tree files would be overwritten by merge (Solved)

On my branch I had some files in .gitignore

On a different branch those files are not.

I want to merge the different branch into mine, and I don't care if those files are no longer ignored or not.

Unfortunately I get this:

How would I modify my pull command to overwrite those files, without me having to find, move or delete those files myself?

How to Solve the untracked working tree files would be overwritten by merge issue?

The problem is that you are not tracking the files locally but identical files are tracked remotely so in order to "pull" your system would be forced to overwrite the local files which are not version controlled.

Try running

Alternative Method:

You can try command to clear the untracked files from the local

Git 2.11 and newer versions:

Where -d can be replaced with the following:

• -x ignored files are also removed as well as files unknown to Git.
• -d remove untracked directories in addition to untracked files.
• -f is required to force it to run.

To fix the "Error: the following untracked working tree files would be overwritten by merge" error, you will need to resolve the conflict between the changes made in your local repository and the changes in the remote repository.

Here are the steps you can follow to resolve this error:

Check out the branch you want to merge into your current branch:Copy codegit checkout <branch-name>

Fetch the latest changes from the remote repository:Copy codegit fetch origin

Check out a new branch based on the current branch and the latest changes from the remote repository:Copy codegit checkout -b <new-branch-name>

Merge the changes from the remote repository into your new branch:Copy codegit merge origin/<branch-name>

If there are conflicts, you will need to resolve them by editing the affected files and marking the conflicts as resolved. You can use the following command to see a list of the files with conflicts:Copy codegit diff --name-only --diff-filter=U

Once you have resolved the conflicts, you can add the modified files to the staging area and commit your changes:Copy codegit add <modified-files>git commit -m "Resolved merge conflicts"

Finally, you can push your changes to the remote repository:Copy codegit push origin <new-branch-name>

After following these steps, you should be able to successfully merge the changes from the remote repository into your local repository without encountering the "Error: the following untracked working tree files would be overwritten by merge" error.

How Gitignore Works?

Gitignore is a new format for ignoring files that was created by Git. It is similar to the old "ignore" option in version control systems, but it has many additional features.

1. Gitignore supports multiple file types, including .gitignore, .svnignore, and .hgignore.

2. The contents of a Gitignore file are committed to the remote branch of your repository when you make a change to that file.

3. If a commit fails because of an ignored file, the branch will be aborted with an error message and no changes will be made to the repository.

4. To use Gitignore in your code, you must add its lines to the "git config" section of your configuration file (e.g., "git config --global gitignore ".gitignore).

How to Use Gitignore to Ignore Files?

1. In your project’s root directory, create a file called gitignore.
2. Add the following content to the gitignore file:

• .gitignore
• ../../../*
• test-files
• README.txt

1. Save the file and exit your project.

How to Use Gitignore to Avoid getting Unknown Files in Your Project?

To add a Gitignore file to your project, you first need to create an empty Git repository and name it after the file you want to ignore. For example, if you want to avoid any files that may contain sensitive data, you might name your repository " secrets ". Next, install git and gitignore on your computer.

Then, use the following command to add the file secrets/gitignore to your project:
git add secrets/gitignore

If all goes well, your project should now have a new Gitignore file in its contents. You can use this file to exclude specific files from being checked out or worked on by anyone else in your project. To use the FILE list contained in this Gitignore file, run the following command:
git status
You should now see something like this when running git status :

<-- Nothing changed since last time  --- /Users/username/.gitconfig: 11 path HIDDEN:/Users/username/.gitmodules: 7 path secret:/etc/gitlab/config: 6 ---> [new version]
This means that the file secrets/gitignore was added and is being used to ignore files in your project.