Rebasing Deep Dive

Rebase replays your commits on top of another branch, creating a linear history.

git rebase main

Interactive rebase

git rebase -i HEAD~3 opens an editor where you can:

• pick — keep the commit as-is
• squash/fixup — combine with previous commit
• reword — edit the commit message
• drop — delete the commit entirely

When to use rebase vs merge

| Scenario | Use | |---|---| | Integrating upstream changes locally | rebase | | Merging a feature into main | merge (or squash merge) | | Shared branch others are working on | Never rebase |

Golden rule

Never rebase commits that have been pushed to a shared branch. It rewrites history and forces others to reconcile diverged histories.