through to the merge strategy.
	See linkgit:git-merge[1] for details.

[[OUTPUT]]
OUTPUT
------

For a successful merge, the output from git-merge-tree is simply one
line:

	<OID of toplevel tree>

Whereas for a conflicted merge, the output is by default of the form:

	<OID of toplevel tree>
	<Conflicted file info>
	<Informational messages>

These are discussed individually below.

However, there is an exception.  If `--stdin` is passed, then there is
an extra section at the beginning, a NUL character at the end, and then
all the sections repeat for each line of input.  Thus, if the first merge
is conflicted and the second is clean, the output would be of the form:

	<Merge status>
	<OID of toplevel tree>
	<Conflicted file info>
	<Informational messages>
	NUL
	<Merge status>
	<OID of toplevel tree>
	NUL

[[MS]]
Merge status
~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is an integer status followed by a NUL character.  The integer status is:

     0: merge had conflicts
     1: merge was clean

[[OIDTLT]]
OID of toplevel tree
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is a tree object that represents what would be checked out in the
working tree at the end of `git merge`.  If there were conflicts, then
files within this tree may have embedded conflict markers.  This section
is always followed by a newline (or NUL if `-z` is passed).

[[CFI]]
Conflicted file info
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is a sequence of lines with the format

	<mode> <object> <stage> <filename>

The filename will be quoted as explained for the configuration
variable `core.quotePath` (see linkgit:git-config[1]).  However, if
the `--name-only` option is passed, the mode, object, and stage will
be omitted.  If `-z` is passed, the "lines" are terminated by a NUL
character instead of a newline character.

[[IM]]
Informational messages
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This section provides informational messages, typically about
conflicts.  The format of the section varies significantly depending
on whether `-z` is passed.

If `-z` is passed:

The output format is zero or more conflict informational records, each
of the form:

	<list-of-paths><conflict-type>NUL<conflict-message>NUL

where <list-of-paths> is of the form

	<number-of-paths>NUL<path1>NUL<path2>NUL...<pathN>NUL

and includes paths (or branch names) affected by the conflict or
informational message in <conflict-message>.  Also, <conflict-type> is a
stable string explaining the type of conflict, such as

  * "Auto-merging"
  * "CONFLICT (rename/delete)"
  * "CONFLICT (submodule lacks merge base)"
  * "CONFLICT (binary)"

and <conflict-message> is a more detailed message about the conflict which often
(but not always) embeds the <stable-short-type-description> within it.  These
strings may change in future Git versions.  Some examples:

  * "Auto-merging <file>"
  * "CONFLICT (rename/delete): <oldfile> renamed...but deleted in..."
  * "Failed to merge submodule <submodule> (no merge base)"
  * "Warning: cannot merge binary files: <filename>"

If `-z` is NOT passed:

This section starts with a blank line to separate it from the previous
sections, and then only contains the <conflict-message> information
from the previous section (separated by newlines).  These are
non-stable strings that should not be parsed by scripts, and are just
meant for human consumption.  Also, note that while <conflict-message>
strings usually do not contain embedded newlines, they sometimes do.
(However, the free-form messages will never have an embedded NUL
character).  So, the entire block of information is meant for human
readers as an agglomeration of all conflict messages.

EXIT STATUS
-----------

For a successful, non-conflicted merge, the exit status is 0.  When the
merge has conflicts, the exit status is 1.  If the merge is not able to
complete (or start) due to some kind of error, the exit status is
something other than 0 or 1 (and the output is unspecified).  When
--stdin is passed, the return status is 0 for both successful and
conflicted merges, and something other than