Why is Git Windows committing on merge, even with merge.commit=no?

Question

I am using Git Bash in Windows 10, version: git version 2.25.1.windows.1. Let me know if I need to be more specific. I am also using GitExtensions but my question is around merging from Git Bash.

When I merge from there, i.e.:

git merge feature-branch-name

it commits even though, as far as I can tell, all three of my Git config files are set otherwise. I know I can specify --no-commit in the command but I would like not to have to do that.

From the source code directory, git config --list produces the output below, where it shows three times that merge.commit=no.

diff.astextplain.textconv=astextplain
filter.lfs.clean=git-lfs clean -- %f
filter.lfs.smudge=git-lfs smudge -- %f
filter.lfs.process=git-lfs filter-process
filter.lfs.required=true
http.sslbackend=openssl
http.sslcainfo=C:/Program Files/Git/mingw64/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt
core.autocrlf=false
core.fscache=true
core.symlinks=false
core.editor="C:\\Program Files\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe" -multiInst -notabbar -nosession -noPlugin
credential.helper=manager
merge.ff=no
merge.commit=no
core.editor="C:/Program Files (x86)/GitExtensions/GitExtensions.exe" fileeditor
user.email=craig@wereallconnected.ca
user.name=Craig Silver
merge.tool=winmerge
merge.ff=no
merge.commit=no
mergetool.winmerge.path=C:/Program Files (x86)/WinMerge/winmergeu.exe
mergetool.winmerge.cmd="C:/Program Files (x86)/WinMerge/winmergeu.exe" -e -u  -wl -wr -fm -dl "Mine: $LOCAL" -dm "Merged: $BASE" -dr "Theirs: $REMOTE" "$LOCAL" "$BASE" "$REMOTE" -o "$MERGED"
pull.rebase=false
fetch.prune=false
rebase.autostash=false
diff.guitool=winmerge
difftool.winmerge.path=C:/Program Files (x86)/WinMerge/winmergeu.exe
difftool.winmerge.cmd="C:/Program Files (x86)/WinMerge/winmergeu.exe" -e -u "$LOCAL" "$REMOTE"
core.repositoryformatversion=0
core.filemode=false
core.bare=false
core.logallrefupdates=true
core.ignorecase=true
core.sshcommand=ssh
merge.ff=no
merge.commit=no
submodule.active=.
remote.origin.url=REMOVED
remote.origin.fetch=+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
remote.origin.puttykeyfile=REMOVED
branch.master.remote=origin
branch.master.merge=refs/heads/master
branch.FMS-1203_data-structures-algorithms-string-matching.remote=origin
branch.FMS-1203_data-structures-algorithms-string-matching.merge=refs/heads/FMS-1203_data-structures-algorithms-string-matching
branch.FMS-1205_recency-trumps-frequency-for-small-fr-diff.remote=origin
branch.FMS-1205_recency-trumps-frequency-for-small-fr-diff.merge=refs/heads/FMS-1205_recency-trumps-frequency-for-small-fr-diff
branch.FMS-1204_debug-window.remote=origin
branch.FMS-1204_debug-window.merge=refs/heads/FMS-1204_debug-window

Also, git config --get merge.commit outputs no.

FYI, GitExtensions behaves correctly: merging there does not commit.

What am I missing?

Answer 1

As far as I can see - there is no merge.commit option that you can set, only merge.ff. See https://git-scm.com/docs/git-merge#_configuration.

What you can do is declare an alias that runs merge with the wanted option

git config alias.mr 'merge --no-commit'