Cancel git merge but keep local changes

Question

I started a git merge, but made local changes that I want to keep. I no longer want to merge, and instead continue to work on the local changes. How do I do this?

Answer 1

Found a tested solution for:

1. keep all current changes in the working directory, whether you manually edited those files OR the merge that you are in the middle of brought them in

rm .git/MERGE*
rm .git/ORIG_HEAD

Might be a bit dangerous as you're basically directly interfering with git's internal working, so maybe back up your folder first :)