How can I advance my local branch by 1 commit?

Question

In my git repository local branch, it is behind by 9 commits. Can you please tell me how can I advance it by 1 commit?

# Your branch is behind 'my-git/remote' by 9 commits, and can be fast-forwarded.

I have read How can I fast-forward a single git commit, programmatically? I don't understand the answer.

I don't need to do it programmically. Is there a command line way I can use?

Answer 1

In this specific instance you could do

git merge my-git/remote~8 --ff-only

Explanation: you are saying you want all commits from the branch 'my-git/remote' merged into your current branch, except for the 8 latest commits. The except part is covered in the "~8". "--ff-only" is there for safety, but not strictly neccessary.

Answer 2

Advance (or fast-forward) is the same as merge in case if history is not diverged. So, you could merge to a commit you need, e.g.

git merge my-git/remote~8