Synchronization conflict resolution

The push and pull commands can be used to synchronize the local test cases (e.g. scenarios in a feature file) to Azure DevOps or from Azure DevOps respectively. For the most of the time this can be done without problems, because either the local test case or the remote Test Case was modified or they have only been changed in a detail that does not effect the synchronization. In some cases though a conflict can occur. This page summarizes the options to handle such conflicts.

It is recommended to agree on a process about changing the tests with the team. Following a clear guideline on when to change the local test case and when the remote Azure DevOps Test Case is easier than to resolve change conflicts.

The conflict resolution method can be selected and configured separately for push and pull and by default they are set to defaults that are appropriate for the most of the usages (overwrite for push and interactive for pull).

The chosen conflict resolution method can be configured using the /synchronization/push/conflictResolution and /synchronization/pull/conflictResolution settings.

The following table contains the usable conflict resolution methods.

Method	Description
overwrite	Overrides the target without asking. Useful if the "source-of-truth" is clearly defined. This is the default value for the push command.
overwriteWithWarning	Overrides the target and reports a warning. Use when you want to keep non-interactive overwrite behavior but still get notified.
interactive	In case of a conflict SpecSync shows the two versions and asks the user interactively to choose. When running on the pipeline or in a non-interactive console, the conflicts will fail the test synchronization, similarly to the error option. This is the default value for the pull command.
error	The conflicting tests will be ignored and a test error is registered. The whole synchronization process will fail, but SpecSync will try synchronizing the upcoming scenarios.
skipWithWarning	Skips the conflicting test and reports a warning (no changes made).
skip	Skips the conflicting test without a warning (no changes made).

With the --force command line option, the changes can be overridden independently of the configured method. To apply a forced override for a single test, the --force option can be used together with the --filter option, e.g. --force --filter "@tc:1234".

Choosing for the error method can be also used to get notified about conflicting changes on the server.