different git history in develop and master due to git squash

Question

We follow the Gitflow pattern and have develop, release and master branches. We merge the feature branches into develop. We checkout the release branch from develop and merge into the master during the release time. We had set the squash and merge setting in the github. We have a situation due to squash settings.

Let's say we have commits c1, c2, c3,..c100 commits in develop branch. we checkout out release branch from it and added few more small commits d1, d2, d3. when we merged the release branch into master, it squashed all the commits into one commit CM1. Now the master has only one commit. Since we needed d2, d2, d3 in develop also, we tried to merge release branch. Now it shows lots of file changes since they have different commit history.

We realized we should not have squash settings while merging into the master branch. Now the question is how can we bring develop and master in sync again. I wanted to discuss which of the option would be best. I can think of one. Let me know if there are other better options.

1. Merge release branch into master again without the squash settings. This will make develop and master same.

Answer 1

As you realized, it's not a good idea to use squash merges on long-running branches. The GitHub documentation explains why this is. Right now, you have two possible options to consider:

1. Perform a merge as normal. If the two sides have not changed much since the squash merge, then this will probably just work.
2. If the two sides have diverged significantly or the above option causes significant conflicts, you can revert the squash merge and perform the merge again. This may have conflicts of its own, so the first option is better.

I would try the first option, and if it seems really awful, then try the second option and see if it's better.