title: How to Merge when you get error "Hint: You have divergent branches and need to specify how to reconcile them."
body: <p>I'm working with 1 other developer who has created a branch that needs to be merged with master.</p>
  <p>I get this error when attempting to Pull in Git in Visual Studio Community (not Visual Studio Code) to a Bitbucket repo</p>
  <p>If I attempt to Push it says &quot;unable to push because your local branch is behind the remote branch&quot;.</p>
  <p>This is the error:</p>
  <pre><code>Hint: You have divergent branches and need to specify how to reconcile them.
  Hint: You can do so by running one of the following commands sometime before
  Hint: your next pull:
  Hint: 
  Hint:   git config pull.rebase false  # merge
  Hint:   git config pull.rebase true   # rebase
  Hint:   git config pull.ff only       # fast-forward only
  Hint: 
  Hint: You can replace &quot;git config&quot; with &quot;git config --global&quot; to set a default
  Hint: preference for all repositories. You can also pass --rebase, --no-rebase,
  Hint: or --ff-only on the command line to override the configured default per
  Hint: invocation.
  Git failed with a fatal error.
  Git failed with a fatal error.
  Need to specify how to reconcile divergent branches.
  </code></pre>
  <p>I've found various things that discuss this, eg</p>
  <p><a href="https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/code-review/git-pull-error-pulling-without-specifying-how-to-reconcile-divergent-branches-is-discouraged?page=1&amp;replyId=773818" rel="noreferrer">https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/code-review/git-pull-error-pulling-without-specifying-how-to-reconcile-divergent-branches-is-discouraged?page=1&amp;replyId=773818</a></p>
  <p>and
  <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62653114/how-can-i-deal-with-this-git-warning-pulling-without-specifying-how-to-reconci">How can I deal with this Git warning? &quot;Pulling without specifying how to reconcile divergent branches is discouraged&quot;</a></p>
  <p>But none of them explain WHY this is happening and what the actions actually do.</p>
  <p>How can I merge in what's in the other branch into master, why is this message coming up and what effect do all the suggestions in the hints have?</p>
  <p>Thanks</p>