Git: automatic merges with server side hooks (for the win!)

The post details a manual shell script for cascading merges from stable branches (e.g., 2.1) to newer branches (2.2, 2.3, master). It then presents a Python implementation of a server-side Git 'update' hook to automate this process, including core logic for merging and resetting on failure. Finally, it introduces Stash's built-in feature for automated branch merging based on repository topology configuration.