Smart Merge not working

I have Unity 5 set up with Mercurial (TortoiseHg) and BitBucket. I followed all the instructions to set up Smart Merge so that scenes and prefabs could merge correctly (my co-developer did the same, and we've both re-checked to make sure the config was right).

Merging conflicting changes fails every time though. If we both edit the same prefab and try to merge our commits, we get an error, "Couldn't load spec file 'auto'." We've tried both Mixed and Force Text modes for asset serialization, same result either way.

Does anyone have any info on this? Since it's such a new tool, I couldn't find any other threads on it anywhere...

 

The same happens with Tortoise SVN. I added the following extension specific merge program for ".prefab".

C:\Program Files\Unity\Editor\Data\Tools\UnityYAMLMerge.exe merge -p %base %theirs %mine %merged

But trying to edit conflicts results in the "Couldn't load spec file 'auto'." error.

 

I'm seeing the same thing with SourceTree.

I followed the instructions and put "merge -p $BASE $REMOTE $LOCAL $MERGED" as the arguments. When I try to 'resolve conflict with external merge tool', I see the error "Couldn't load spec file 'auto'".

 

Looks like we hit the quadfecta. I also seem to be getting this error while using Perforce. Sometimes i am able to get around it by resetting up the connection by following the steps again, but i found another, unrelated problem as well.

In the 5.0.1 patch notes, there is this little line right here:

"Editor: Stripped prefab instance objects are now marked as stripped in the scene file..."

which now writes the word "stripped" next to the object identifier in the YAML.

because of this, the UnityYAMLMerge tool fails to parse the file, citing "mapping values are not allowed in this context." I tested it out and manually deleted all the instances of "stripped" in the file and tried to run the tool on it again, and it did indeed work, but as you can imagine, it will be very tedious to remove every instance before submitting scene files, and just as hard to enforce across my team.

 

I'm also having issues with perforce, though my error is: "Error running semantic merge" when trying to resolve a scene file using the built in "Version Control Resolve" Unity prompt, selecting "Merging", then selecting the "Semantic and merge tool" option.

If I select "Merge tool only" it thinks for a while, spawns the "Accept merge?" prompt, but never launches the merge tool I have specified in the preferences (p4merge). If I hit accept, it wipes the scene (lol!).

Is this the same workflow that everyone else is using? Honestly the SmartMerge documentation doesn't say anything about how to actually perform the merges and resolve conflicts.

 

Bump. I know this wasn't billed as a big feature, but it would be a big win for us if it just worked. With the blog post on the subject being the only source of information I've been able to find, I'm not really sure where to look next. Can anyone help?

 

Awesome, much appreciated. I'll work on submitting a bug report and minimum repro right now -- been meaning to anyway -- and I'll post the case # here.

Edit: So far it's worked flawlessly in a fresh project, so I don't think I can send you a minimum repro from that. If you need it, I can see if I'm allowed to make (and upload) a minimum repro from our actual project (NDAs and what-not). Unless someone else in this thread is able to get one to you based off their project.

 

We've been doing some more testing, and it looks like the "use semantic merge" button always produces an error of some type (on my coworker's machine). I don't actually even have the option presented to me on my machine anymore -- it just spawns the "do you want to accept the merge?" window (as if I'd selected merge manually), followed by the merge tool I had selected (p4 merge). This is actually sort of good news; I wasn't even getting that far before, and I was able at least to start trying to resolve "conflicts".

In both cases, despite knowing exactly what we'd both changed and what the conflicts should have been, I saw 3 more conflicts than expected. I'm thinking these were all caused by plugins or something, because the data looked unfamiliar ("instanceID"; some other custom component gibberish buried underneath an ENORMOUS matrix of vector3s -- argh!).

I can make a video of what we're trying if that'd help.

TL;DR: We're chocking this up from "Doesn't work" to "works inconsistently." We still aren't quite sure what the perfect scenario is supposed to look like.

 

I am getting the "mapping values are not allowed in this context" error in Unity 5.0.2

 

Hello I'd like to ask about the UnityYAMLMerge - is it a feature exclusive to PRO version?
We're using the Free (personal) version of unity 5 and Git versioning.
We have modified our Git config accoording to http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/SmartMerge.html, but there's no way to enable smart merge for Git inside unity (you can enable it only on Perforce & Plastic SCM integration, which are PRO features)
When trying to run the UnityYAMLMerge.exe through command line it does not resolve a conflict (and just breaks the secene).

We're very confused by this - is smartmerge a PRO feature and if so, how do you enable it for Git (inside unity)?
Thanks

 

Oh wow. Thank you Google for randomly getting me this thread. I have been struggling with all this nasty collaboration stuff and am excited to see this working soon.

@jdrewsen Would you be willing to update this thread with the maintenance release containing these fixes? I try not to reinstall the entire editor unless it contains a fix I need.

 

Cool, cause the tool just isn't working at all for us. We have the git config set up per the instructions on Unity's docs and whenever we pull changes it just creates merge conflicts. Is the smart merge going to work for scenes or just prefabs? We always get scene conflicts on the most basic of changes.

 

sorry to necro this, but im still getting the "Couldn't load spec file 'auto'." error when trying to use this tool.
Im using it with source tree on a mercurial repo and have it configured exactly like it mentions in the SmartMerg Manual.

I'm running unity 5.0.2 64bit on windows 7, tomorrow i will try on the same setup but on OSX once i arrive at work.

 

Thanks that is good to hear that it will get back ported to 5.0.x this will be huge once working stable since not being able to reliably have multiple people working on a scene is a pretty big sore point.

 

Here's a side question. Right now multiple people working on a scene is basically impossible. Is the UnityYAMLMerge supposed to solve "all" the merge issues we've been seeing for years? The scope and use-cases haven't been clearly explained that I've seen. RIght now if multiple people edit an object in the scene, say some people change values and one person adds a child -- the result will likely be a nasty conflict and the scene will just crash or someone's work will be getting erased. Will Smart Merge fix this? Also, what will happen when 2 people edit the same portion? Say one person adds and object and another person also adds and object in that same spot (but separate object, so were it code it would be resolved with a simple manual merge) ... Will there be a "diff" view we'll be able to see to resolve this or will we still get a YAML file filled with <<<<<< and ======== ?

 

Hey there,

I'm seeing this issue currently:

Code (CSharp):

1. LONLTM01517:Tools matthew.newcombe$ ./UnityYAMLMerge merge -p CutScene_1_base.unity CutScene_1_a.unity CutScene_1_c.unity
2. Conflicts:
3. Left  522038295.Transform.m_LocalScale.x change to 13.2399998
4. Right 522038295.Transform.m_LocalScale.x change to -58.8400002
5. Left  522038295.Transform.m_LocalScale.y change to 37.5699997
6. Right 522038295.Transform.m_LocalScale.y change to -144.100006
7. Conflict handling:
8. 2015-05-29 11:33:00.600 FileMerge[9039:117816] Failed to connect (delegate) outlet from (DiffController) to (DiffController): missing setter or instance variable
9. 2015-05-29 11:33:00.601 FileMerge[9039:117816] Failed to connect (mainPrefPane) outlet from (DiffController) to (NSBox): missing setter or instance variable
10. 2015-05-29 11:33:00.698 FileMerge[9039:117816] Unable to load platform at path /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform
11. 2015-05-29 11:33:00.699 FileMerge[9039:117816] Unable to load platform at path /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform
12. 2015-05-29 11:33:01.024 FileMerge[9039:117816] +dataWithFirstBytes:1024 ofFile:"/var/tmp/tmp.2.rqdIIo" failed, errno = 93
13. LONLTM01517:Tools matthew.newcombe$

As a result my "merge" window doesn't look so great (please check attached screenshot).

Any tips?

This is with the latest Unity 5.1 RC2, XCode 6.3.2, it's trying to use FileMerge

 

Sure can do!

How do I configure it to fall back to a different merge tool via the command line call?

 

It's working for small scenes and simple objects (cubes, spheres, etc). But when I try more complicated scene changes like adding a prefab and more complicated objects with more components, I seem to always get an error.

It was crashing plainly before "YAML Merge Tool has stopped working.."

But I tried a new fresh scene and gradually worked my way up to resolving simple merge conflicts to more complicated ones. At first, a cube was added to the scene, then more cubes, spheres, etc. It seemed to work perfectly. But when I moved on to adding prefabs and more complicated objects with components, it seems to vomit on itself and now I'm getting this:

"Couldn't locate merge tool to handle extension tmp in c:\Program Files\Unity\Editor\Data\Tools\mergespecfile.txt"

I'm using git and manually merging in the shell by calling "git mergetool" which calls YAML (I followed the instructions in the Unity manual), this is the log:

Code (CSharp):

1. Merging:
2. Assets/Scenes/F***ingMerge.unity
3.  
4. Normal merge conflict for 'Assets/Scenes/F***ingMerge.unity':
5.   {local}: modified file
6.   {remote}: modified file
7. Conflicts:
8. Left  6285081.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 13
9. Right 6285081.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 11
10. Left  19361228.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 6
11. Right 19361228.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 4
12. Left  372863157.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 11
13. Right 372863157.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 9
14. Left  705938883.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 18
15. Right 705938883.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 16
16. Left  710787755.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 17
17. Right 710787755.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 15
18. Left  727421319.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 12
19. Right 727421319.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 10
20. Left  1287417424.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 10
21. Right 1287417424.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 8
22. Left  1762658750.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 9
23. Right 1762658750.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 7
24. Left  1768550110.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 15
25. Right 1768550110.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 13
26. Left  1778856546.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 16
27. Right 1778856546.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 14
28. Left  1969225611.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 7
29. Right 1969225611.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 5
30. Left  2026064985.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 14
31. Right 2026064985.Transform.m_RootOrder change to 12
32. Conflict handling:
33. Assets/Scenes/F***ingMerge.unity seems unchanged.
34. Was the merge successful? [y/n] n
35. merge of Assets/Scenes/F***ingMerge.unity failed

And then I get that "mergespecfile.txt" error.

Am I doing something wrong? Why does it need a fallback tool...? It also always seems to give me "xxx.unity seems unchanged" for Conflict handling even when the merge conflict is perfectly resolved.

EDIT: I'm using Perforce as a fallback tool and it seems to work perfectly. I did like 3-4 tests with complicated prefabs for merge conflicts and it's merging perfectly without a hitch. For those that are wondering, all I did was install Perforce, it's free to install, and then linked it as a fallback tool just like it tells you to in the "mergespecfile.txt" file.

 

I solved it. I just left my post as is for other people who might have trouble. Thank you for fixing the bugs though .

 

I'm on Unity 5.1.0F3

Still having trouble with the Smart Merge.

I've modified my mergespecfile.txt to have the two uncommented lines to be

unity use "%programs%\Perforce\p4merge.exe" "%b" "%l" "%r" "%d"
prefab use "%programs%\Perforce\p4merge.exe" "%b" "%l" "%r" "%d"

SmartMerge is set to "Ask" right now, and when I go to resolve a conflict with a scene, it brings up the "Version Control Resolve" window. If I resolve conflict by "merging" I get asked to select a merge method. If I select "Semantic and merge tool" I wait for a few seconds until I get a notice that "YAML Merge Tool has stopped working" and I'm forced to close the program. Two errors also show up in the console.

Error running semantic merge
UnityEditor.HostView:OnGUI()

UnityEditor.HostView:OnGUI()

Checking the Editor.log the last few lines are

Error running semantic merge
UnityEditor.VersionControl.Task:Wait()
UnityEditor.VersionControl.WindowResolve:OnGUI() (at C:\buildslave\unity\build\Editor\Mono\VersionControl\UI\VCWindowResolve.cs:133)
System.Reflection.MonoMethod:InternalInvoke(Object, Object[], Exception&)
System.Reflection.MonoMethod:Invoke(Object, BindingFlags, Binder, Object[], CultureInfo) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)
System.Reflection.MethodBase:Invoke(Object, Object[]) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MethodBase.cs:115)
UnityEditor.HostView:Invoke(String, Object) (at C:\buildslave\unity\build\Editor\Mono\HostView.cs:185)
UnityEditor.HostView:Invoke(String) (at C:\buildslave\unity\build\Editor\Mono\HostView.cs:178)
UnityEditor.HostView:OnGUI() (at C:\buildslave\unity\build\Editor\Mono\HostView.cs:74)

[C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Src/VersionControl/VCProvider.cpp line 1642]
(Filename: /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs Line: 222)


UnityEditor.VersionControl.Task:Wait()
UnityEditor.VersionControl.WindowResolve:OnGUI() (at C:\buildslave\unity\build\Editor\Mono\VersionControl\UI\VCWindowResolve.cs:133)
System.Reflection.MonoMethod:InternalInvoke(Object, Object[], Exception&)
System.Reflection.MonoMethod:Invoke(Object, BindingFlags, Binder, Object[], CultureInfo) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)
System.Reflection.MethodBase:Invoke(Object, Object[]) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MethodBase.cs:115)
UnityEditor.HostView:Invoke(String, Object) (at C:\buildslave\unity\build\Editor\Mono\HostView.cs:185)
UnityEditor.HostView:Invoke(String) (at C:\buildslave\unity\build\Editor\Mono\HostView.cs:178)
UnityEditor.HostView:OnGUI() (at C:\buildslave\unity\build\Editor\Mono\HostView.cs:74)
[C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Src/VersionControl/VCProvider.cpp line 1643]

(Filename: /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs Line: 222)


If I choose "Merge tool only" instead, p4merge opens and I can manually merge the scene no problem.

Any thoughts?

 

Unfortunately I can't. Work project.

I made a new test project and I made a small test case and it worked fine. So the issue must have been specific to that project (perhaps it chokes on larger scenes or something?).

When I made this test project, I ran across unexpected behavior (to me) and I'm not sure if it is by design.
I made a simple case of adding a component to a GameObject such as an AudioSource, and I merged a change from a coworker that added a MeshRenderer and MeshFilter to that same GameObject. After it was done, the GameObject had a MeshFilter and an AudioSource, but no MeshRender.

I tried to merge it manually, and I realized that my added AudioSource and the incoming MeshRenderer had the same fileID. So during the Smart Merge, the AudioSource was chosen to be the correct Component and the MeshRenderer was never added.

Is the Smart Merge not set up to handle cases like this?

What about a case where two people change which Material to use on a MeshRenderer? Smart Merge seemed to just pick one (the incoming change). My change of material was not recorded, nor was I allowed to pick which one to use.

 

I can't send a bug report, but I I guess the scenes aren't that large. Only 3 MB.

All of this was tried using Unity 5.1.0f3.

Thanks for looking into this. I can't send you the original project that caused the crash but I can put my test project here.

It's a .unitypackage which is the Base. I attached put both changed scene files. I also attached what the merged result is, as well as what I would expect (I did a manual merge in p4merge).

 

I got an error message, which is "mapping values are not allowed in this context." when I try to merge using drag one scene and drop to another scene.
I tried this in 5.1.0f3 version (lastest!)..
Actually a scene that have not many game objects works fine, but somewhat big scene has a problem to merge....
@jdrewsen

 

Reporter works, but the System Info that the bug reporter pulls and sends is no good for us unfortunately.

 

@jdrewsen
I reported my problem today.
This is report ID: 707311
Thanks!

 

I have the UnityYAMLMerge.exe configured correctly inside of my Mercurial repo's hgrc file, but am getting the following error everytime I try to merge. (see attachment)

I have a suspicion it has something to do with Mercurial. I know it isn't nearly as popular as Git these days.

I have the mergespecificfile.txt set up to use WinMergeU.exe

unity use "%programs%\WinMerge2011\WinMergeU.exe" "%l" "%r" "%b" "%d"
prefab use "%programs%\WinMerge2011\WinMergeU.exe" "%l" "%r" "%b" "%d"​

However, I don't expect UnityYAMLMerge to have to fallback to WinMergeU.exe if it works.

Any thoughts?

Also, I was going to use this tool manually, but I don't understand what the "base" is. I have two files. My local file (left) and the other file (right). What is this third file supposed to be?

Edit: I understand now that the base is the same file just before it was branched.

Edit2: After running the UnityYAMLMerge.exe manually, it crashes during the merge. I will submit a bug report.

Edit3: Here it the bug report.

http://fogbugz.unity3d.com/default.asp?708057_r4m9pn4g6chhunn0

 

Did you try my one?

 

I downloaded Unity 5.1.1, upgraded all of the scene files (left, right, and base) to 5.1.1 versions. The YamlMerge still runs for about 5-10 seconds from the command line and then crashes.

My concern in doing this was mostly with the base file. After upgrading it to 5.1.1, it of course would no longer be the correct base file that both came from. However, I don't know if that has anything to do with the crash. I will update the ticket.

EDIT: I am unsure if e-mailing the open ticket (as it suggests) will accept my new scene attachment files. Let me know if it does. Ticket 708057 has been updated.

 

FYI. I've just tried to use this tool to merge some scene changes and ran into a "Cannot do a double change on the same key in a mapping" error. I've submitted a bug report (709028) with scene files attached. I'm using Unity 5.1.1f1. Thanks.