Git push commands

[Carl D. Sorensen]

I'm now able to push changes to the repository, but every time I do a push,
I get two commits -- one for the changes I made, and one for a merge.

Obviously I'm doing something wrong.  I'd appreciate some guidance about how
to do it right.

Here's my setup:

sorensen2:lilypond-working Carl$ git remote --v
origin    address@hidden:/srv/git/lilypond.git

sorensen2:lilypond-working Carl$ git branch
* master

sorensen2:lilypond-working Carl$ cat .git/config
[core]
    repositoryformatversion = 0
    filemode = true
    bare = false
    logallrefupdates = true
[branch "master"]
[remote "origin"]
    url = address@hidden:/srv/git/lilypond.git
    fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
[branch "master"]
    remote = origin
    merge = master


When I've finished making changes to the files, I do:

git commit -a

to commit the changes in my local repository.  Then I do

git pull

to get the most recent version of origin.  This is followed by

git push

to push my changes to origin.

What should I do different to avoid the merge commit every time I push?

Thanks,

Carl

P.S.  Is there a way to make it so I don't have to enter my dsa passphrase
every time I pull or push?