Merging a branch into an intermediate commit in GIT

Question

Say you have a separate branch which keeps getting new commits for tracking a database dump, and that it's a branch from the first commit of master.

I know I can merge into HEAD of master, the usual procedure.

Instead, I wanted to merge the branch history into an intermediate commit, for keeping parallel branch lines in gitk to a minimum.

So I tried to:

git checkout -b temp_master_branch [Intermediate master commit SHA1]
git merge db_dump_branch
git checkout master

Nevertheless, when I visualize in gitk there are now 3 long lines, one for master, another for the dump branch and finally other for this new temp_branch.

How can I do this ? I hope it makes some sense.

Thanks.

And how many branches you would like to get as a result instead? — raina77ow, Dec 06 '13 at 18:26
You mean that you want to merge db_dump_branch into an old commit (a parent commit of the master branch's tip)? — Magnus Bäck, Dec 06 '13 at 18:38
@raina77ow I would like to merge into master (i.e. a single current active branch). — Niloct, Dec 06 '13 at 18:40

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 06 '13 at 18:56

2

Merges always create new commits (except in the fast-forward case), so merging into an old commit isn't possible without creating a new branch or rewriting the existing branch. If you want the database dumps in your master branch you need to merge into the tip of the master branch and deal with how gitk looks.

Other options to attack the long-lived parallel branch:

Have the database dumper commit directly to master.
Unless updates are very frequent, have the dumper create a short-lived new branch for each dump.

answered Dec 06 '13 at 18:56

Magnus Bäck

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What is the real difference, am I not merging into HEAD anyways ? I didn't get how this is feasible when HEAD is on top and isn't feasible when I move HEAD to a previous commit. – Niloct Dec 06 '13 at 19:11
2

Well, _by definition_ you're always merging to HEAD. But unless HEAD _happens_ to be the tip of the master branch you won't actually be merging into master, you'll be merging into a branch (which, in turn, can be merged to master). – Magnus Bäck Dec 06 '13 at 19:21

Merging a branch into an intermediate commit in GIT

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