What does "fast-forward" mean in programming?
fast-forward is one of the most common terms in software development. This guide explains what it means, how it is used in practice, and why it matters, with real examples from the developer world.
Definition
A type of merge where Git simply moves the target branch pointer forward to the latest commit of the source branch, without creating a merge commit. This is only possible when the target branch has no new commits since the source branched off. The result is a clean, linear history.
Example
"Git fast-forwarded main to the feature branch because no other commits had been added to main in the meantime."
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