Long time ago at fab47d05 ("merge: force edit and no-ff mode when
merging a tag object", 2011-11-07), "git merge" was made to always
create a merge commit when merging a tag, even when the side branch
being merged is a descendant of the current branch.
This default is good for merges made by upstream maintainers to
integrate work signed by downstream contributors, but will leave
pointless no-ff merges when downstream contributors pull a newer
release tag to make their long-running topic branches catch up with
the upstream. When there is no local work left on the topic, such a
merge should simply fast-forward to the commit pointed at by the
release tag.
Update the default (again) for "git merge" that merges a tag object
to (1) --no-ff (i.e. create a merge commit even when side branch
fast forwards) if the tag being merged is not at its expected place
in refs/tags/ hierarchy and (2) --ff (i.e. allow fast-forward update
when able) otherwise.
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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