Interactive rebase earned its scary reputation in one afternoon when I squashed six messy commits into a story anyone could read. History rewriting, done right, feels like editing.
About 2 min of reading
Before this new lesson, one small question about the lesson you just finished. Recall it, do not look it up.
Replay my branch's commits on top of the latest main so history stays a straight line. I watched the branch move and the commits come back with new hashes, no merge commit in sight.
Make a base commit on main, then a topic branch with a commit. Then main drifts away with its own commit, so the two branches have separate lines of history.
Before you run it, say out loud what it will print. Then open the answer.
Switch to the topic branch and rebase it onto main. Git replays topic's commit on top of main's latest commit, rewriting history into a straight line.
Before you run it, say out loud what it will print. Then open the answer.
Confirm the history is now a single clean line with no merge commit. The topic commit now sits directly on top of the main commit.
Before you run it, say out loud what it will print. Then open the answer.
Those words in the editor do real work:
| Command | Does |
|---|---|
pick | Keep the commit as it is |
squash | Fold it into the one above |
reword | Change its message |
drop | Remove it entirely |
Edit the list, save, and git replays the commits in the new arrangement. This is editing your history the same way you would edit a document.
Both join branches, but they leave different fingerprints:
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
merge | New merge commit, preserves every old commit |
rebase | Linear history, no merge commit |
Rebase rewrites the commits it touches. That makes history cleaner but means a rebased commit on your machine no longer matches the one on anyone else's. The rule of thumb: rebase only your own unshared work.
git rebase -i HEAD~3-i opens your editor with a list of the last three commits, oldest first. Next to each is the word pick. Change that word to reword, squash, or drop, save, and git plays the commits back in the new order you asked for.
pick a1 fix login
squash b2 wip
squash c3 fix againsquash folds later commits into the first, giving you one clean commit instead of three. I use it before every push, because a tidy history is what makes it easy for others to follow your work later.
git rebase mainThis replays your branch's commits on top of the latest main. The result is a straight line with no extra merge commit. My branches always look tidy afterward, though rebase does rewrite each commit's hash, which is exactly why you should never rebase work others have already pulled.
Each one is defined here on this site. Open the entry for the full definition and the other words it points at.