Git Rebase

Rebase is another way to bring the changes of one branch into another. Merge keeps the true history with a merge commit. Rebase takes your commits and replays them on top of the other branch, so the history becomes a straight line.

Syntax

git rebase <branch>
git rebase --continue
git rebase --abort
git rebase -i HEAD~3

Example: rebase a feature branch on main

The branch feature has 2 commits, and main got one new commit after the split. Let us see the history before the rebase.

Now the two commits of feature are on top of main, in a straight line. Look at the hashes: the commits “Add chapter 1” and “Add chapter 2” have new hashes, because they are new commits with a new parent.

To finish, move main forward with a fast-forward merge. There is no merge commit now.

Merge vs Rebase

Topic	Merge	Rebase
History	Keeps the real history, has merge commits	Straight, clean line
Commits	Not changed	Re-created with new hashes
Safe on shared branches	Yes	No
Conflicts	Solved one time in the merge commit	May need to be solved for each commit

The golden rule of rebase

Never rebase commits which you have pushed and others are using. Rebase rewrites the commits, so other people will have the old commits and Git will be confused for them. Rebase only your own local branches.

If there is a conflict during the rebase

Git stops at the commit with the conflict. Fix the files, then:

git add <file>
git rebase --continue

If it becomes too difficult, go back to the starting point with git rebase --abort.

Interactive rebase

The option -i opens a list of your last commits, where you can reorder, edit, drop or join (squash) them before sharing the branch.

git rebase -i HEAD~3

pick 1a2b3c4 Add chapter 1
squash 5d6e7f8 Fix typo in chapter 1
reword 9a8b7c6 Add chapter 2

In this list, the second commit is joined into the first one, and the third message can be changed.

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