--no-ff doesn't get rid of the individual commits, it just guarantees that a merge commit gets created as well, so it's easy to see what branch was merged in.

--no-ff doesn't get rid of the individual commits, it just guarantees that a merge commit gets created as well, so it's easy to see what branch was merged in. If you don't use it and the commits you're merging in can be applied via fast forward, it skips creating the merge commit.