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#### 28.5.6 Combining the Two Versions

Sometimes you want to keep both alternatives for a particular difference. To do this, use `x c`, which edits the merge buffer like this:

    #ifdef NEW
    version from B buffer
    #else /* not NEW */
    version from A buffer
    #endif /* not NEW */

While this example shows C preprocessor conditionals delimiting the two alternative versions, you can specify the strings to use by setting the variable `emerge-combine-versions-template` to a string of your choice. In the string, ‘`%a`’ says where to put version A, and ‘`%b`’ says where to put version B. The default setting, which produces the results shown above, looks like this:

    "#ifdef NEW\n%b#else /* not NEW */\n%a#endif /* not NEW */\n"