git usage

to avoid merges and a clean history try using 'git pull --rebase' instead of 'git pull', so that your changes are applied on top of the changes of the master branch.

You can make this the default by setting the pull.rebase config value with something like git config --global pull.rebase true.

If you have uncommited changes you need to 'stash' them first. You can also automate this behaviour with the additional "--autostash" flag