git merge --no-commit
This is just like a normal merge but doesn’t create a merge-commit. This commit will be a merge commit: when you look at the history, your commit will appear as a normal merge.
git merge --squash
This will merge the changes into your working tree without creating a merge commit. When you commit the merged changes, it will look like a new “normal” commit on your branch: without a merge commit in the history. It’s almost like you did a cherry-pick on all the merged changes.