How to fix error: you need to resolve your current index first

Git is a distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. One of the most common issues users face is an error that says ” You need to resolve your current index first.” This error is usually caused when there are conflicting changes between the local files and the files on the server. In this article, we will show you how to fix the “You need to resolve your current index first” error in Git. This error means that Git is unable to merge your changes with the changes that have been made in the repository since you last synchronized.

 

 

Before you proceed make sure that you have the latest version of Git & proper version control.

 

 

There are two ways to solve this error: you need to resolve your current index first

1)  Resolving the Merge Conflict

If Git does not automatically resolve your merge, it leaves the index and working tree in a special state that provides you with all the information you need to resolve the merge. Conflicting files will be highlighted in the index, and you will continue to receive this error message until you resolve the issue and update the index.

1. Resolve the whole conflict – Open the files that have conflicts you can see the list of files that have a conflict in the terminal and make changes in the files accordingly.

 

2. After solving the conflicts, then simply add the file and then commit the file changes.

 

For example:

# This command add all of the files in the current package
git add .

#This command commits the changes and add the commit message which is Conflict Resolved .
git commit -m 'Conflict Resolved'

 

3. After resolving the conflict, go to your existing branch and try it again and the problem is fixed.

 

 

2)  Reverting your Merge

There are so many cases where someone merge the branches and messed up with the repository. Because of all the confusion and conflicts, the project is a mess now and your colleagues are blaming you for the mess. In this scenario, you just have to revert back to the previous commit (the merge commit).  This will bring back the entire project to a state where you didn’t do any merges. This can be helpful to you.

 

For revert, the merge uses the command below it will reset the index and updates the file in the working tree that differs between the head and the commit. This command will keep those files that are different between the working and index tree.

# Use git reset merge command
git reset --merge

 

You can also use reverting the HEAD method by using the command given below

#SHA1 hash of the merge

git revert -m 1 87d0c6c0c03da72bb24a57a1d407686d40e5d70c

We can use the SHA1 hash of the merge commit. The -m followed by the 1 indicates we want to keep the parent side of the merge(the branch we are merging into). By running the above command now git will create a new commit and rolls back the changes from that merge.

 

 

Also, read Python Tutorials.