git merges of tags

Hi all,

Just a reminder that if you are merging Linus' tree (or any tree really) via a tag, git was changed some time ago so that merging a tag will not do a fast forward (there is a good reason for this - I just can't recall it ATM). This is a problem when your current head of branch has been merged into (e.g.) Linus' tree and then you do "git merge <tag>" on a tag that is later than the merge point. You end up with an unnecessary merge commit rather than just fast forwarding.

To do the fast forward, try "git merge <tag>^{}" ... (unfortunately doing "git merge --ff <tag>" also does not do a fast forward - it also doesn't fail, it unexpectedly just creates a merge commit :-().