title: Git Merge: error: unable to unlink old <file>: No such file or directory
body: <p>I'm pulling a branch into <code>master</code> in order to merge it.</p>
  
  <p>Command I'm running is (while having <code>master</code> checked out): <code>git pull origin feature/some_branch</code></p>
  
  <p>Unfortunately it seems my colleagues have performed some (what I would think benign) file deletions on there, and now git spews out a <code>error: unable to unlink old 'somefile': No such file or directory</code>.</p>
  
  <p>I've tried to look online but most of the references for this error concern permissions, which is not the case here.</p>
  
  <p>The file in question is <em>not</em> present on master before the merge, while is it in the new branch.</p>
  
  <p>The problem is that <code>master</code> wasn't updated in a long time so there are way too many changes and files affected for me to start figuring the code out.</p>
  
  <p>I just need <code>master</code> to contain all the changes that came from the new branch. We never commit anything to <code>master</code> directly, always through merges. </p>
  
  <p>What I've tried so far:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Using <code>--force</code> parameter, same issue</li>
  <li><code>git reset origin/master --hard</code> and running the <code>pull</code> again, same issue</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>How can I update <code>master</code> with another, more recent branch without caring for such issues, and while keeping its history?</strong></p>