CODEWITHSUNDEEP
git
McDonnellDean
McDonnellDean

Reputation: 1087

Upstream merge commits in pull request

When doing open source development it's normal to track against the upstream for a period of time while doing any changes on a topic branch. One of the things I have noticed when bringing the upstream back is that a merge commit is created. If I then create a pull request this merge commit ends up as part of the PR.

My question is, is there any harm in this? I have read that some people feel they are useless but I like the fact that they act as a timestamp against when I last synced with the upstream. Is there an accepted practice for tracking the upstream and introducing merge commits.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 404

Answers (1)

VonC
VonC

Reputation: 1324268

when bringing the upstream back is that a merge commit is created.

That is why it is preferable to:

  • git rebase master (rebase your branch on top of the updated remote tracking branch)
  • git push -f (force pushing your branch to your GitHub fork: the existing PR will be updated accordingly)

That works well if:

  • your PR is done in its own branch
  • nobody else is actively using your branch

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions