Merge conflict in package-lock.json

We probably have all been here

$ git pull origin develop
remote: Counting objects: 14, done.
remote: Total 14 (delta 6), reused 6 (delta 6), pack-reused 8
Unpacking objects: 100% (14/14), done.
From github.com:adriaandotcom/feature/something-really-awesome
 * branch            develop    -> FETCH_HEAD
   41a55e3..575f291  develop    -> origin/develop
Auto-merging package.json
Auto-merging package-lock.json
CONFLICT (add/add): Merge conflict in package-lock.json
Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.

To fix this error run these commands

rm package-lock.json
npm install
git add package-lock.json
git commit

Or as a oneliner so it does not continue when one command fails

rm package-lock.json && npm install && git add package-lock.json && git commit

Do note that this might update your package versions, which defeats the purpose of why the package-lock.json exists. It’s recommended to manually edit the package.json file, and run npm install [--package-lock-only] again, as per the docs.

The recommended way

It can create a few issues if you use the above method. You basically remove the enhandcements that the lock file brings.

Yes it can have bad side effects, maybe not very often but for example you can have in package.json "moduleX": "^1.0.0" and you used to have "moduleX": "1.0.0" in package-lock.json. By deleting package-lock.json and running npm install you could be updating to version 1.0.999 of moduleX without knowing about it and maybe they have created a bug or done a backwards breaking change (not following semantic versioning).

It can change the versions you have currently installed. Usually this is not a big problem.

If you care about this, use the following way.

• Fix conflicts in package.json
• Run npm install

Source: stackoverflow.com/…/deleting-package-lock-json-to-resolve-conflicts-quickly.

Thanks to @qwen-3108 (comment) for pointing this out in the comments.

Happy coding! – Found a mistake or a typo? Please submit a PR to my GitHub-repo.