Managing github repository while multiple people are making changes to the same file

Question

I have a GitHub repo that has multiple contributors making changes at the same time. I'm having conflicts with merging pull requests because by the time someone wants to submit changes they've made to be reviewed, someone else who had been working on a portion of the code in the same file will end up having an outdated repository on their local device. Whenever they plan to make their pull request with the changes, the repository had already been changed.

• What is the proper way to submit changes through the command line before making a pull request to ensure you have the updated repository and the changes on your local device arent removed by re-pulling?

• How should I properly be instructing my team to make changes to my repository while avoiding conflicts of files being updated?

• What steps should I be taking when reviewing pull requests to make sure I am merging properly?

Answer 1

This is a very common scenario with version control tools like GitHub. There is NO solution to avoid merges completely, being in the same repository but there are a few ways that can help you reduce merges:

1. If possible, restructure your repo and make it modular for different teams.
2. See if you can use the concept of a common library and rearrange contents in various smaller repositories.
3. THE BEST way is to ask all contributors to make small and very frequent changes. This will increase no. of pull requests but it will make review quick for reviewers. And you also need to ensure there is no pipeline being formed for pull request review.

Thanks!