My repo is straightforward: master, with a dev branch, and an exp branch off of dev. Sometimes when I do what seems like a plain-vanilla merge, git still requires an extra commit, along with the token message "merge exp to dev" -- I thought I understood the reason for this, but apparently I don't.
Git started requiring extra commits on all of my merges, and I thought I could correct it by merging up, that is, from dev to exp, and from master to dev. I guess not. Now I have logs like the following. When I'm on my exp branch, I can't see dev or master in the log:
$ git log --graph --oneline
* 2302e04 (HEAD -> exp) Lock all cell key inits, not just hot
* 05b7207 Allow for asyncAfter not doing barriers properly
* 96a7da8 Merge dispatch queue improvments with bug fixes
|\
| * 61f0f3e Keep strong ref to dispatch until done with it
| * 6ce8bfe Release stepper before retiring sprites
* | d2acb67 Dedicated dispatch queues for census and clock
|/
* c466b38 (origin/exp) Remove excess async call wrappers
* c3e0562 Fix calorie intake issues
* f6528b8 More debug to catch dead Arkon carcasses
* 4f78c89 Some debug and some metabolism tweaking
* 79ea6fc Use lock properly when planting manna
And when I switch to dev or master, the log looks like something is seriously wrong:
$ git log --graph --oneline
* ebf5244 - (HEAD -> master, origin/dev, dev) More merge hell (23 hours ago)
|\
| * 6ce8bfe - Release stepper before retiring sprites (24 hours ago)
| * c466b38 - (origin/exp) Remove excess async call wrappers (4 days ago)
| * c3e0562 - Fix calorie intake issues (4 days ago)
* | ab18fcd - (origin/master, origin/HEAD) Still in merge hell (4 days ago)
|\ \
| |/
| * f6528b8 - More debug to catch dead Arkon carcasses (4 days ago)
| * 4f78c89 - Some debug and some metabolism tweaking (5 days ago)
| * 79ea6fc - Use lock properly when planting manna (6 days ago)
| * ed2fd20 - Fix bloom failure (6 days ago)
| * 8273def - All manna operations always run in actions (6 days ago)
* | 6ecefa9 - Merge branch 'exp' into dev, god knows why (8 days ago)
|\ \
| |/
| * de9dc5b - Fix keys transfer bug, freaking finally (8 days ago)
| * dd7c265 - Simplify cell lock mechanism (2 weeks ago)
* | c007107 - Trying to escape merge hell (8 days ago)
|\ \
| * \ 80114d2 - Merge branch 'dev' (2 weeks ago)
| |\ \
| * \ \ 218e5c9 - Merge branch 'dev' (2 weeks ago)
| |\ \ \
| * \ \ \ 5f13180 - Merge branch 'dev' (3 weeks ago)
| |\ \ \ \
| * \ \ \ \ e4150f5 - Merge branch 'dev' (4 weeks ago)
| |\ \ \ \ \
| * \ \ \ \ \ e7cd064 - Merge branch 'dev' (4 weeks ago)
| |\ \ \ \ \ \
| * \ \ \ \ \ \ 95bc8f8 - Merge branch 'dev' (6 weeks ago)
| |\ \ \ \ \ \ \
| * \ \ \ \ \ \ \ da3500d - Merge branch 'dev' (7 weeks ago)
| |\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
| * \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ 4b45133 - Merge branch 'dev' (8 weeks ago)
| |\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
| * \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ a3498b7 - Grr, more weird branch merge stuff (10 weeks ago)
| |\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
| * \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ e9b0429 - Merge branch 'dev' (3 months ago)
| |\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
:
And I still can't merge from dev to master, or from exp to dev, without needing an extra commit again. I don't know what's causing it. It seems like the hierarchical relationships between the branches have been lost.
I don't even know where to start on figuring out this problem, I don't know where to look. Googling "broken branch history" turns up a lot of stuff about fixing the history of a single branch, nothing about the relationships among branches.
What's the most effective way to approach the problem? What keywords could I google to get relevant information? Is there a specific name for this problem?
