Disable Fast Forward Merging
By default, Git uses fast forward merging to merge branches that have no divergent commits. This means that if you have a branch with no new commits, Git will simply move the pointer of the branch you are merging into to the latest commit of the branch you are merging from. While this can be useful in some cases, it can also cause issues, especially when working on larger projects with multiple contributors. For example, if two developers are working on the same branch and both make changes, fast forward merging can cause conflicts that are difficult to resolve.
To disable fast forward merging, let's use the repository from https://github.com/labex-labs/git-playground.
- Clone the repository, navigate to the directory and configure the identity:
git clone https://github.com/labex-labs/git-playground
cd git-playground
git config --global user.name "your-username"
git config --global user.email "your-email"
- Create and switch to a branch called
my-branch, create a hello.txt file and add "hello,world" to it, add it to the staging area and commit it with the message "Added hello.txt":
git checkout -b my-branch
echo "hello,world" > hello.txt
git add .
git commit -m "Added hello.txt"
- Run the following command to disable fast forward merging:
git config --add merge.ff false
This will disable fast forward merging for all branches, even if it is possible. You can use the --global flag to configure this option globally:
git config --global --add merge.ff false
- Switch back to the
mater branch and merge the my-branch branch, save and exit without changing the text:
git checkout master
git merge my-branch
Now, Git will always create a merge commit, even if it is possible to fast forward:
commit 6e17a776ab51a89ace069614b0caf1c07915a92c (HEAD -> master)
Merge: ec5ea6d 6d7de91
Author: xiaoshengyunan <@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Mon Jul 17 13:30:44 2023 +0800
Merge branch 'my-branch'
