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Git Rebase

Understanding Git Rebase​

Git rebase is a powerful tool that allows you to modify the commit history. It's an excellent way to keep your commit history clean and understandable. It's considered as an advanced git command, and it's often used in conjunction with git fetch and git merge to keep your local repository up to date.

What is Git Rebase?​

In its simplest form, git rebase is a command that allows you to move or combine a sequence of commits to a new base commit. It's like saying, "I want to base my changes on what everybody else has already done."

When to Use Git Rebase?​

Git rebase is commonly used in the following scenarios:

  • To make a linear sequence of commits: Instead of merging a branch with the master, you can rebase the branch onto master. This will create a linear history, which can be easier to follow.
  • To squash multiple commits into one: If you have several commits that are related to the same feature or bug fix, you can squash them into a single commit with a detailed message.
  • To amend older or multiple commit messages: Git rebase can be used to amend older or multiple commit messages at once.
  • To split a commit into smaller ones: If a commit includes several changes that should have been broken up into smaller commits, you can use rebase to split it.

Basic Git Rebase Commands​

Here are some basic Git rebase commands:

  • git rebase <base>: This command allows you to take all changes that were committed on one branch and replay them on another.
  • git rebase -i <base>: This command, also known as interactive rebase, gives you the opportunity to alter individual commits in the process. This is the most powerful form of rebase and can be used to perform operations such as squashing commits, skipping commits, and altering commit messages.
  • git rebase --abort: This command allows you to stop the rebase process and return to the state before rebase was initiated.
  • git rebase --continue: This command is used when a rebase has paused due to a merge conflict. Once the conflict is resolved, --continue is used to continue the rebase process.

How to Use Git Rebase?​

Let's go through a simple example to understand how to use git rebase. Assume you have a feature branch called feature, which is based on the master branch. You've done some work on the feature branch, and in the meantime, some new commits have been added to master by your colleagues. Here's how you can rebase your feature branch onto master:

  1. Fetch the latest changes from the remote repository: git fetch origin master
  2. Checkout to your feature branch: git checkout feature
  3. Start the rebase operation: git rebase origin/master

In the above steps, origin is the remote repository, and master is the branch you want to rebase onto. If there are any conflicts between your branch and the base branch, git will pause and allow you to resolve those conflicts. Once you've resolved all conflicts, you can continue the rebase with git rebase --continue.

Conclusion​

Git rebase is a powerful command that can make your commit history cleaner and easier to understand. It's a valuable tool in a developer's toolkit, and it's worth taking the time to understand and master it. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility—use it wisely! Remember that rebase changes the commit history, so you should never use it on branches that are public, i.e., shared with other developers. Always use it on local branches.