DIRTY_INDEX at merge

Question

I fetched some updates from upstream, merged, and got the following error message:

FAILED: DIRTY_INDEX [filename]

After a reset and another merge, I get this error:

FAILED: DIRTY_WORKTREE [another-filename]

All this is cryptic to me - what should I do now?

Answer 1

I also had the same problem. My suggestions for the solution would be: 1. Before checking out the project from origin, make sure in the Project tab, the Build Automatically option is turn off. And try merge with the other branch.

Answer 2

As mention ed in "Fun with keeping local changes around":

Linus often performs patch applications and merges in a dirty work tree with a clean index.

• A dirty work tree is where you have changes that are not added to the index.
  A work tree that is not dirty is a clean work tree.
• A dirty index is where you have changes already added to it (in other words, "git diff --cached" will report some changes).
  A clean index matches the HEAD.

Each time, git status can display what you need to do before being able to do a new merge.

git stash, for instance, can save current work in progress in your working tree, and git stash pop will apply said work once the merge is done.