In Azure DevOps (and Git in general), when merging branches, there are several types of merge strategies or commit behaviors beyond just fast-forward. Here’s a breakdown:

✅ 1. Fast-Forward Merge

• Used when: The target branch is directly ahead of the source branch (no new commits in target).
• Result: Moves the branch pointer forward; no merge commit created.
• Cleanest history.

✅ 2. Merge Commit

• Used when: The branches have diverged.
• Result: A new merge commit is created, combining both histories.
• Pros: Preserves the full context of the branches.
• Command: git merge (default without --ff-only)

✅ 3. Squash Merge

• Used when: You want to flatten all commits into a single commit in the target branch.
• Result: Clean target history, but original commits are not preserved.
• Common for: Feature branches.
• Command: git merge --squash

✅ 4. Rebase and Merge

• Used when: You want to reapply commits from the source onto the latest commit of the target branch.
• Result: Linear history without merge commits.
• Risk: Can be confusing in shared branches due to rewritten history.
• Command: git rebase followed by git merge

✅ 5. Manual Merge (Resolve Conflicts)

• Used when: Automatic merge fails due to conflicts.
• Result: Developer must resolve conflicts manually and then commit the resolution.
• Can occur in: Any merge type.

🔍 Comparison Table

Mohammad Gufran Jahangir