[boost] merging from develop to master

Hello, I'm trying to compare Boost.Python's develop branch with master, to decide how to proceed. I was naively assuming that develop would regularly be rebased so it's easy to merge patches. However, https://github.com/boostorg/python/branches/active indicates develop is "276 commits ahead". How is that possible ? How did previous maintainers keep the develop branch in sync with master ? How is this handled in other Boost libraries ? Thanks, Stefan -- ...ich hab' noch einen Koffer in Berlin...