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rebase

  • With rebase, the commits from the main branch are merged as fast-forward into the feature branch (rebase)
  • All the commits from the feature branch are then rewritten on top of the new latest commit
# switch to feature branch
git checkout "feature"

# rebase "feature" branch on top of main branch
git rebase "origin/main" # "main" under the hood is SHA1 of the last commit in main
git rebase "origin/main" # rebase with a upstream repo in a forked repo

# switch to main branch
git checkout "main"

# merge "feature" branch into base branch (FF will be used)
git merge "feature"

Rebasing conflicts

  • When rebasing, first git remove all new commits in the feature branch. And merge the new commits from main branch in fast-forward
  • Then git takes each new commit in the feature branch, one at a time
  • At each commit, it's checked wether it can be fast-forwarded, or if there are conflicts
  • If there are conflicts, you must resolve it, add it to staging area (do not commit) and continue the rebasing process
# first resolve the conflicts and add changes them to staging area
git rebase --continue # continue to next feature commit
git rebase --skip # skip the conflicting feature commit (it will be discarded)
git rebase --abort # abort the whole rebasing process
git rebase --edit-todo # edit to rebase instructions (in case something has been entered wrongly)

Rebase with squash

  • Squash is a rebase with a commit in the own branch
  • Squash can condense all commits of a feature branch into a single commit
  • Must be done interactively
  • SHA1 is usually the first commit in the feature branch (the new base - rebase)
git rebase "SHA1" --interactive
git rebase "62079b5" -i
git rebase "62079b5^" -i # includes the commit mentioned
  • pick (p): use commit
  • reword (r): use commit, but edit its message
  • edit (e): use commit, but stop for amending
  • squash (s): use commit, but meld into previous commits
  • break (b): stop the executing between commits
pick 100001 Message1
squash 100002 Message2
squash 100003 Message3

# Alternatively you can squash with the following:
git reset "SHA1" # first commit in the feature branch
git add -A && git commit -m "condensed commit"