I’ve been experiencing a particular problem with git at a new project that I was added to as a collaborator. Here’s what I usually do:

1. Create a new branch from develop in order to fix a bug:

$ git checkout develop && git pull origin develop && git checkout -b NEW_BRANCH_1

2. After making changes, I push them to the repository:

$ git add . && git commit -am 'some-message' && git push origin NEW_BRANCH_1

3. While I wait for a code review, I create another branch for another bug fix:

$ git checkout develop && git pull origin develop && git checkout -b NEW_BRANCH_2

4. I make and push changes:

$ git add . && git commit -am 'another-message' && git push origin NEW_BRANCH_2

At the moment, it’s only me creating PRs.

Now onto the problem. After receiving successful code reviews, I first merge NEW_BRANCH_1 into develop with the fast-forward algorithm. After a successful merge, I then subsequently try to merge NEW_BRANCH_2 into develop, but then am faced with the following error:

The merge could not be completed because the repository is configured to require fast-forward merges and the target branch contains commits which are not present in the source branch. To perform this merge, either merge develop into NEW_BRANCH_2, or rebase NEW_BRANCH_2 onto develop

With this, I’m forced to select the option rebase and fast-forward.

How can I avoid this? I kind of understand that NEW_BRANCH_2 doesn’t have the commit from NEW_BRANCH_1, but there’s got to be some approach to this that’ll avoid rebasing. At any point, I could have up to 10 open PRs, all waiting for a code review, and checking out into each of these bug fix branches and running git pull origin develop --rebase && git push origin <BRANCH_NAME> can become cumbersome.