What branch merging strategies have you used when working with Git?

Main branch merging strategies in Git that I have used:

• Merge (with a merge commit) — the classic method, preserves the history of both branches, creating a new merge commit. Convenient for combining large feature branches.

• Rebase — moves commits from one branch onto another, creating a linear history. Useful for simplifying history and avoiding unnecessary merge commits.

• Squash merge — combines all commits of a branch into one during merging, which simplifies and makes the history more readable.

Example of using rebase:

# Switch to the feature branch
git checkout feature
# Rebase commits onto master
git rebase master
# Switch back to master and merge without a merge commit
git checkout master
git merge feature --ff-only

The choice of strategy depends on the project policy and team preferences.