Merge branches without checking out branch

Question

I have 3 branches.

     master [ Live Server]
      \\
       stage [ Stage Server Where we test changes; merge commits ]
        \\ 
         Dev [ Local Machi         


        

Answer 1

Enter git-forward-merge:

Without needing to checkout destination, git-forward-merge <source> <destination> merges source into destination branch.

https://github.com/schuyler1d/git-forward-merge

Answer 2

You can't merge into a branch in the general case without having it checked out. There's a good reason for this, however. You need the proper working tree in order to denote and resolve merge conflicts.

Answer 3

You can indeed "merge" a branch B into branch A without having to check out branch A, but only if it's a fast-forward merge.

You can use a refspec with fetch to do the "merge". If merging branch B into branch A using git merge would result in a fast-forward merge, then you can do the following without having to checkout A:

git fetch <remote> B:A

The Documentation

The above matches the refspec format

git fetch <remote> <source>:<destination>

From the documentation for git fetch (emphasis mine):

The remote ref that matches <src> is fetched, and if <dst> is not empty string, the local ref that matches it is fast-forwarded using <src>.

See Also

1. Git checkout and merge without touching working tree

2. Merge, update, and pull Git branches without using checkouts

3. Merging without changing the working directory

4. Merging Branches Without Checkout