Rebasing Branches

What is Rebasing?

Rebasing is a way to move or combine a sequence of commits to a new base commit.
In simple terms, rebasing lets you “replay” your work from one branch onto another branch, creating a cleaner, linear history.

Why Use Rebase?

• Cleaner History:
  Rebasing creates a straight line of commits, making the project history easier to read.
• Avoids Merge Commits:
  Unlike merging, rebasing doesn’t create extra merge commits unless there are conflicts.
• Keeps Features Up-to-Date:
  You can update your feature branch with the latest changes from main before merging.

How Does Rebasing Work?

Imagine you have this history:

A---B---C main
         \
          D---E feature

If you run git rebase main while on feature, Git will:

1. Temporarily remove commits D and E from feature.
2. Move feature to the tip of main (commit C).
3. Replay D and E on top of C.

Result:

A---B---C---D'---E' feature

• D' and E' are new commits (copies of D and E).

Basic Rebase Command

git checkout feature
git rebase main

• This moves your feature branch to start from the latest commit on main.

Interactive Rebase

Interactive rebase lets you edit, reorder, squash, or drop commits.

git rebase -i HEAD~n

• Replace n with the number of commits you want to edit.
• You’ll see a list of commits in your editor, where you can:
  • pick (keep as is)
  • reword (edit commit message)
  • squash (combine commits)
  • drop (remove a commit)

Rebasing vs. Merging

• Merge preserves the full branch structure.
• Rebase rewrites history for a cleaner look.

Handling Conflicts During Rebase

• If there’s a conflict, Git will pause and let you resolve it.
• After fixing the conflict, run:

  git add <file>
  git rebase --continue
  

• If you want to abort the rebase:

  git rebase --abort
  

When (Not) to Rebase

• Do rebase:
  • On your own feature branches before merging, to clean up history.
• Do NOT rebase:
  • On public branches that others are using. Rebasing rewrites commit history, which can confuse collaborators.

Visualizing Rebase

Use this command to see your commit history as a graph:

git log --oneline --graph --all

Tip:
Rebasing is powerful for keeping your history tidy, but always be