non fast forward

In Git, a non-fast-forward merge is a merge where the branch that is being merged has a commit that is not a direct descendant of the current branch. This happens when there are two separate branches that have diverged and have separate commits that cannot be merged without creating a new merge commit.

A non-fast-forward merge creates a new commit that has two or more parents, representing the merge of the two branches. This type of merge is common in collaborative development environments where multiple developers are working on the same codebase, and their changes need to be integrated into a single codebase.

Non-fast-forward merges can be problematic because they can create conflicts and make it difficult to track changes in the codebase. However, they are necessary in situations where divergent changes need to be merged into a single branch. Git provides tools for resolving conflicts and managing non-fast-forward merges, such as merging, rebasing, and cherry-picking.