Month: April 2020

Merge commits, not branches

In this chapter, we are going to look closer to the merge process. After you’ve learned, that branch is only a label, time to have a look at what merge is.

Let’s start with some theory and slowly move to practice. First, I want to introduce you to the five rules of the merge:

• The first rule of the merge is:
  The merge is about merging two commits, not branches
• The second rule of the merge is:
  The merge is about joining two commits, not branches ( this is not a typo, it’s just very essential )
• The third rule of the merge is:
  It’s not necessary to merge the last two commits ( those without children ), but any commit can be merged with any commit
• The fourth rule of the merge is:
  Merging two commits produces a new commit, even when you merge the same commits again
• The fifth rule of the merge is:
  History of both commits should have diverged and they must have a common parent

This is a series of articles about Git (https://git-scm.com) version control system (VCS). I aim to show you Git from a different perspective, starting with the central part of Git – commit and going further into the branches and remotes. You will see what is in reality underneath “origin”, why the button “Create branch” in Jira/GitHub/Gitlab makes no sense, how to merge unmergeable branches, and much much more.

Most of the articles will include tasks to execute in a terminal. I strongly advise you to do them. This way, you will get a better understanding of the explanations. To simplify the bootstrapping of the tasks, I will include a bash/powershell script, which will prepare a basic repository structure.

I hope, as soon as you finish through all the articles, you will level up your Git skills.

Chapters so far:

• Intro
• Chapter 1: Branch without a name. Is it possible?
• Chapter 2: Branch with a name. What is it than?
• Chapter 3: Merge commits, not branches
• Chapter 4: “Already up to date” merge