-Two kinds of merge can happen:
-
-* `HEAD` is already contained in the merged commit. This is the
- most common case especially when invoked from 'git pull':
- you are tracking an upstream repository, have committed no local
- changes and now you want to update to a newer upstream revision.
- Your `HEAD` (and the index) is updated to point at the merged
- commit, without creating an extra merge commit. This is
- called "Fast-forward".
-
-* Both the merged commit and `HEAD` are independent and must be
- tied together by a merge commit that has both of them as its parents.
- The rest of this section describes this "True merge" case.
+Except in a fast-forward merge (see above), the branches to be
+merged must be tied together by a merge commit that has both of them
+as its parents.
+The rest of this section describes this "True merge" case.