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1git-rebase(1)
2=============
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3
4NAME
5----
b385085b 6git-rebase - Reapply commits on top of another base tip
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7
8SYNOPSIS
9--------
e448ff87 10[verse]
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11'git rebase' [-i | --interactive] [<options>] [--exec <cmd>]
12 [--onto <newbase> | --keep-base] [<upstream> [<branch>]]
de613050 13'git rebase' [-i | --interactive] [<options>] [--exec <cmd>] [--onto <newbase>]
be496621 14 --root [<branch>]
437591a9 15'git rebase' (--continue | --skip | --abort | --quit | --edit-todo | --show-current-patch)
031321c6 16
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17DESCRIPTION
18-----------
0b444cdb 19If <branch> is specified, 'git rebase' will perform an automatic
328c6cb8 20`git switch <branch>` before doing anything else. Otherwise
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21it remains on the current branch.
22
15a147e6 23If <upstream> is not specified, the upstream configured in
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24branch.<name>.remote and branch.<name>.merge options will be used (see
25linkgit:git-config[1] for details) and the `--fork-point` option is
26assumed. If you are currently not on any branch or if the current
27branch does not have a configured upstream, the rebase will abort.
15a147e6 28
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29All changes made by commits in the current branch but that are not
30in <upstream> are saved to a temporary area. This is the same set
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31of commits that would be shown by `git log <upstream>..HEAD`; or by
32`git log 'fork_point'..HEAD`, if `--fork-point` is active (see the
33description on `--fork-point` below); or by `git log HEAD`, if the
34`--root` option is specified.
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35
36The current branch is reset to <upstream>, or <newbase> if the
37--onto option was supplied. This has the exact same effect as
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38`git reset --hard <upstream>` (or <newbase>). ORIG_HEAD is set
39to point at the tip of the branch before the reset.
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40
41The commits that were previously saved into the temporary area are
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42then reapplied to the current branch, one by one, in order. Note that
43any commits in HEAD which introduce the same textual changes as a commit
44in HEAD..<upstream> are omitted (i.e., a patch already accepted upstream
45with a different commit message or timestamp will be skipped).
69a60af5 46
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47It is possible that a merge failure will prevent this process from being
48completely automatic. You will have to resolve any such merge failure
cc120056 49and run `git rebase --continue`. Another option is to bypass the commit
5960bc9d 50that caused the merge failure with `git rebase --skip`. To check out the
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51original <branch> and remove the .git/rebase-apply working files, use the
52command `git rebase --abort` instead.
031321c6 53
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54Assume the following history exists and the current branch is "topic":
55
031321c6 56------------
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57 A---B---C topic
58 /
59 D---E---F---G master
031321c6 60------------
69a60af5 61
228382ae 62From this point, the result of either of the following commands:
69a60af5 63
031321c6 64
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65 git rebase master
66 git rebase master topic
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67
68would be:
69
031321c6 70------------
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71 A'--B'--C' topic
72 /
73 D---E---F---G master
031321c6 74------------
69a60af5 75
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76*NOTE:* The latter form is just a short-hand of `git checkout topic`
77followed by `git rebase master`. When rebase exits `topic` will
78remain the checked-out branch.
69a60af5 79
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80If the upstream branch already contains a change you have made (e.g.,
81because you mailed a patch which was applied upstream), then that commit
b1889c36 82will be skipped. For example, running `git rebase master` on the
e08bc7a9 83following history (in which `A'` and `A` introduce the same set of changes,
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84but have different committer information):
85
86------------
87 A---B---C topic
88 /
89 D---E---A'---F master
90------------
91
92will result in:
93
94------------
95 B'---C' topic
96 /
97 D---E---A'---F master
98------------
99
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100Here is how you would transplant a topic branch based on one
101branch to another, to pretend that you forked the topic branch
102from the latter branch, using `rebase --onto`.
69a60af5 103
e52775f4 104First let's assume your 'topic' is based on branch 'next'.
e2b850b2 105For example, a feature developed in 'topic' depends on some
e52775f4 106functionality which is found in 'next'.
69a60af5 107
031321c6 108------------
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109 o---o---o---o---o master
110 \
111 o---o---o---o---o next
112 \
113 o---o---o topic
114------------
115
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116We want to make 'topic' forked from branch 'master'; for example,
117because the functionality on which 'topic' depends was merged into the
118more stable 'master' branch. We want our tree to look like this:
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119
120------------
121 o---o---o---o---o master
122 | \
123 | o'--o'--o' topic
124 \
125 o---o---o---o---o next
031321c6 126------------
7fc9d69f 127
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128We can get this using the following command:
129
b1889c36 130 git rebase --onto master next topic
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131
132
133Another example of --onto option is to rebase part of a
134branch. If we have the following situation:
135
136------------
137 H---I---J topicB
138 /
139 E---F---G topicA
140 /
141 A---B---C---D master
142------------
143
144then the command
145
b1889c36 146 git rebase --onto master topicA topicB
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147
148would result in:
149
150------------
151 H'--I'--J' topicB
152 /
153 | E---F---G topicA
154 |/
155 A---B---C---D master
156------------
157
158This is useful when topicB does not depend on topicA.
159
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160A range of commits could also be removed with rebase. If we have
161the following situation:
162
163------------
164 E---F---G---H---I---J topicA
165------------
166
167then the command
168
b1889c36 169 git rebase --onto topicA~5 topicA~3 topicA
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170
171would result in the removal of commits F and G:
172
173------------
174 E---H'---I'---J' topicA
175------------
176
177This is useful if F and G were flawed in some way, or should not be
178part of topicA. Note that the argument to --onto and the <upstream>
179parameter can be any valid commit-ish.
180
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181In case of conflict, 'git rebase' will stop at the first problematic commit
182and leave conflict markers in the tree. You can use 'git diff' to locate
031321c6 183the markers (<<<<<<) and make edits to resolve the conflict. For each
2de9b711 184file you edit, you need to tell Git that the conflict has been resolved,
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185typically this would be done with
186
187
d7f078b8 188 git add <filename>
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189
190
191After resolving the conflict manually and updating the index with the
192desired resolution, you can continue the rebasing process with
193
194
195 git rebase --continue
8978d043 196
8978d043 197
0b444cdb 198Alternatively, you can undo the 'git rebase' with
8978d043 199
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200
201 git rebase --abort
8978d043 202
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203CONFIGURATION
204-------------
205
c7245900 206include::config/rebase.txt[]
16cf51c7 207
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208OPTIONS
209-------
c2145384 210--onto <newbase>::
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211 Starting point at which to create the new commits. If the
212 --onto option is not specified, the starting point is
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213 <upstream>. May be any valid commit, and not just an
214 existing branch name.
873c3472 215+
b9190e79 216As a special case, you may use "A\...B" as a shortcut for the
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217merge base of A and B if there is exactly one merge base. You can
218leave out at most one of A and B, in which case it defaults to HEAD.
69a60af5 219
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220--keep-base::
221 Set the starting point at which to create the new commits to the
222 merge base of <upstream> <branch>. Running
223 'git rebase --keep-base <upstream> <branch>' is equivalent to
224 running 'git rebase --onto <upstream>... <upstream>'.
225+
226This option is useful in the case where one is developing a feature on
227top of an upstream branch. While the feature is being worked on, the
228upstream branch may advance and it may not be the best idea to keep
229rebasing on top of the upstream but to keep the base commit as-is.
230+
231Although both this option and --fork-point find the merge base between
232<upstream> and <branch>, this option uses the merge base as the _starting
233point_ on which new commits will be created, whereas --fork-point uses
234the merge base to determine the _set of commits_ which will be rebased.
235+
236See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
237
52a22d1e 238<upstream>::
ea81fcc5 239 Upstream branch to compare against. May be any valid commit,
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240 not just an existing branch name. Defaults to the configured
241 upstream for the current branch.
7fc9d69f 242
228382ae 243<branch>::
52a22d1e 244 Working branch; defaults to HEAD.
7fc9d69f 245
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246--continue::
247 Restart the rebasing process after having resolved a merge conflict.
248
249--abort::
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250 Abort the rebase operation and reset HEAD to the original
251 branch. If <branch> was provided when the rebase operation was
252 started, then HEAD will be reset to <branch>. Otherwise HEAD
253 will be reset to where it was when the rebase operation was
254 started.
031321c6 255
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256--quit::
257 Abort the rebase operation but HEAD is not reset back to the
258 original branch. The index and working tree are also left
259 unchanged as a result.
260
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261--apply:
262 Use applying strategies to rebase (calling `git-am`
263 internally). This option may become a no-op in the future
264 once the merge backend handles everything the apply one does.
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265+
266See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
267
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268--empty={drop,keep,ask}::
269 How to handle commits that are not empty to start and are not
270 clean cherry-picks of any upstream commit, but which become
271 empty after rebasing (because they contain a subset of already
272 upstream changes). With drop (the default), commits that
273 become empty are dropped. With keep, such commits are kept.
274 With ask (implied by --interactive), the rebase will halt when
275 an empty commit is applied allowing you to choose whether to
276 drop it, edit files more, or just commit the empty changes.
277 Other options, like --exec, will use the default of drop unless
278 -i/--interactive is explicitly specified.
279+
280Note that commits which start empty are kept, and commits which are
281clean cherry-picks (as determined by `git log --cherry-mark ...`) are
282always dropped.
283+
284See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
285
90e1818f 286--keep-empty::
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287 No-op. Rebasing commits that started empty (had no change
288 relative to their parent) used to fail and this option would
289 override that behavior, allowing commits with empty changes to
290 be rebased. Now commits with no changes do not cause rebasing
291 to halt.
5dacd4ab 292+
d48e5e21 293See also BEHAVIORAL DIFFERENCES and INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
90e1818f 294
a6c612b5 295--allow-empty-message::
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296 No-op. Rebasing commits with an empty message used to fail
297 and this option would override that behavior, allowing commits
298 with empty messages to be rebased. Now commits with an empty
299 message do not cause rebasing to halt.
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300+
301See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
a6c612b5 302
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303--skip::
304 Restart the rebasing process by skipping the current patch.
58634dbf 305
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306--edit-todo::
307 Edit the todo list during an interactive rebase.
308
66335298
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309--show-current-patch::
310 Show the current patch in an interactive rebase or when rebase
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311 is stopped because of conflicts. This is the equivalent of
312 `git show REBASE_HEAD`.
66335298 313
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314-m::
315--merge::
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316 Use merging strategies to rebase. When the recursive (default) merge
317 strategy is used, this allows rebase to be aware of renames on the
2ac0d627 318 upstream side. This is the default.
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319+
320Note that a rebase merge works by replaying each commit from the working
321branch on top of the <upstream> branch. Because of this, when a merge
322conflict happens, the side reported as 'ours' is the so-far rebased
323series, starting with <upstream>, and 'theirs' is the working branch. In
324other words, the sides are swapped.
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325+
326See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
58634dbf 327
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328-s <strategy>::
329--strategy=<strategy>::
06f39190 330 Use the given merge strategy.
0b444cdb 331 If there is no `-s` option 'git merge-recursive' is used
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332 instead. This implies --merge.
333+
0b444cdb 334Because 'git rebase' replays each commit from the working branch
31ddd1ee 335on top of the <upstream> branch using the given strategy, using
5dacd4ab 336the 'ours' strategy simply empties all patches from the <branch>,
31ddd1ee 337which makes little sense.
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338+
339See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
58634dbf 340
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341-X <strategy-option>::
342--strategy-option=<strategy-option>::
343 Pass the <strategy-option> through to the merge strategy.
6cf378f0 344 This implies `--merge` and, if no strategy has been
93ce190c 345 specified, `-s recursive`. Note the reversal of 'ours' and
edfbbf7e 346 'theirs' as noted above for the `-m` option.
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347+
348See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
93ce190c 349
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350--rerere-autoupdate::
351--no-rerere-autoupdate::
352 Allow the rerere mechanism to update the index with the
353 result of auto-conflict resolution if possible.
354
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355-S[<keyid>]::
356--gpg-sign[=<keyid>]::
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357 GPG-sign commits. The `keyid` argument is optional and
358 defaults to the committer identity; if specified, it must be
359 stuck to the option without a space.
3ee5e540 360
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361-q::
362--quiet::
363 Be quiet. Implies --no-stat.
364
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365-v::
366--verbose::
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367 Be verbose. Implies --stat.
368
369--stat::
370 Show a diffstat of what changed upstream since the last rebase. The
371 diffstat is also controlled by the configuration option rebase.stat.
372
373-n::
374--no-stat::
375 Do not show a diffstat as part of the rebase process.
b758789c 376
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377--no-verify::
378 This option bypasses the pre-rebase hook. See also linkgit:githooks[5].
379
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380--verify::
381 Allows the pre-rebase hook to run, which is the default. This option can
382 be used to override --no-verify. See also linkgit:githooks[5].
383
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384-C<n>::
385 Ensure at least <n> lines of surrounding context match before
386 and after each change. When fewer lines of surrounding
387 context exist they all must match. By default no context is
10cdb9f3 388 ever ignored. Implies --apply.
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389+
390See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
67dad687 391
983f464f 392--no-ff::
5e75d56f 393--force-rebase::
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394-f::
395 Individually replay all rebased commits instead of fast-forwarding
396 over the unchanged ones. This ensures that the entire history of
397 the rebased branch is composed of new commits.
b4995494 398+
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399You may find this helpful after reverting a topic branch merge, as this option
400recreates the topic branch with fresh commits so it can be remerged
401successfully without needing to "revert the reversion" (see the
402link:howto/revert-a-faulty-merge.html[revert-a-faulty-merge How-To] for
403details).
5e75d56f 404
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405--fork-point::
406--no-fork-point::
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407 Use reflog to find a better common ancestor between <upstream>
408 and <branch> when calculating which commits have been
409 introduced by <branch>.
ad8261d2 410+
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411When --fork-point is active, 'fork_point' will be used instead of
412<upstream> to calculate the set of commits to rebase, where
413'fork_point' is the result of `git merge-base --fork-point <upstream>
414<branch>` command (see linkgit:git-merge-base[1]). If 'fork_point'
415ends up being empty, the <upstream> will be used as a fallback.
416+
417If either <upstream> or --root is given on the command line, then the
418default is `--no-fork-point`, otherwise the default is `--fork-point`.
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419+
420If your branch was based on <upstream> but <upstream> was rewound and
421your branch contains commits which were dropped, this option can be used
422with `--keep-base` in order to drop those commits from your branch.
ad8261d2 423
86c91f91 424--ignore-whitespace::
749485f6 425--whitespace=<option>::
be50c938 426 These flags are passed to the 'git apply' program
5162e697 427 (see linkgit:git-apply[1]) that applies the patch.
10cdb9f3 428 Implies --apply.
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429+
430See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
059f446d 431
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432--committer-date-is-author-date::
433--ignore-date::
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434 These flags are passed to 'git am' to easily change the dates
435 of the rebased commits (see linkgit:git-am[1]).
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436+
437See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
570ccad3 438
9f79524a 439--signoff::
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440 Add a Signed-off-by: trailer to all the rebased commits. Note
441 that if `--interactive` is given then only commits marked to be
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442 picked, edited or reworded will have the trailer added.
443+
444See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
9f79524a 445
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446-i::
447--interactive::
1b1dce4b 448 Make a list of the commits which are about to be rebased. Let the
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449 user edit that list before rebasing. This mode can also be used to
450 split commits (see SPLITTING COMMITS below).
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451+
452The commit list format can be changed by setting the configuration option
453rebase.instructionFormat. A customized instruction format will automatically
454have the long commit hash prepended to the format.
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455+
456See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
1b1dce4b 457
8f6aed71 458-r::
7543f6f4 459--rebase-merges[=(rebase-cousins|no-rebase-cousins)]::
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460 By default, a rebase will simply drop merge commits from the todo
461 list, and put the rebased commits into a single, linear branch.
462 With `--rebase-merges`, the rebase will instead try to preserve
463 the branching structure within the commits that are to be rebased,
464 by recreating the merge commits. Any resolved merge conflicts or
465 manual amendments in these merge commits will have to be
466 resolved/re-applied manually.
467+
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468By default, or when `no-rebase-cousins` was specified, commits which do not
469have `<upstream>` as direct ancestor will keep their original branch point,
dbf47215 470i.e. commits that would be excluded by linkgit:git-log[1]'s
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471`--ancestry-path` option will keep their original ancestry by default. If
472the `rebase-cousins` mode is turned on, such commits are instead rebased
473onto `<upstream>` (or `<onto>`, if specified).
474+
427c3bd2 475The `--rebase-merges` mode is similar in spirit to the deprecated
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476`--preserve-merges` but works with interactive rebases,
477where commits can be reordered, inserted and dropped at will.
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478+
479It is currently only possible to recreate the merge commits using the
480`recursive` merge strategy; Different merge strategies can be used only via
481explicit `exec git merge -s <strategy> [...]` commands.
25cff9f1 482+
5dacd4ab 483See also REBASING MERGES and INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
8f6aed71 484
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485-p::
486--preserve-merges::
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487 [DEPRECATED: use `--rebase-merges` instead] Recreate merge commits
488 instead of flattening the history by replaying commits a merge commit
489 introduces. Merge conflict resolutions or manual amendments to merge
490 commits are not preserved.
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491+
492This uses the `--interactive` machinery internally, but combining it
493with the `--interactive` option explicitly is generally not a good
494idea unless you know what you are doing (see BUGS below).
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495+
496See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
cddb42d2 497
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498-x <cmd>::
499--exec <cmd>::
500 Append "exec <cmd>" after each line creating a commit in the
501 final history. <cmd> will be interpreted as one or more shell
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502 commands. Any command that fails will interrupt the rebase,
503 with exit code 1.
c2145384 504+
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505You may execute several commands by either using one instance of `--exec`
506with several commands:
507+
508 git rebase -i --exec "cmd1 && cmd2 && ..."
509+
510or by giving more than one `--exec`:
511+
512 git rebase -i --exec "cmd1" --exec "cmd2" --exec ...
513+
514If `--autosquash` is used, "exec" lines will not be appended for
515the intermediate commits, and will only appear at the end of each
516squash/fixup series.
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517+
518This uses the `--interactive` machinery internally, but it can be run
519without an explicit `--interactive`.
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520+
521See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
f09c9b8c 522
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523--root::
524 Rebase all commits reachable from <branch>, instead of
525 limiting them with an <upstream>. This allows you to rebase
df5df20c 526 the root commit(s) on a branch. When used with --onto, it
be496621 527 will skip changes already contained in <newbase> (instead of
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528 <upstream>) whereas without --onto it will operate on every change.
529 When used together with both --onto and --preserve-merges,
530 'all' root commits will be rewritten to have <newbase> as parent
be496621 531 instead.
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532+
533See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
be496621 534
f59baa50 535--autosquash::
dd1e5b31 536--no-autosquash::
f59baa50 537 When the commit log message begins with "squash! ..." (or
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538 "fixup! ..."), and there is already a commit in the todo list that
539 matches the same `...`, automatically modify the todo list of rebase
540 -i so that the commit marked for squashing comes right after the
541 commit to be modified, and change the action of the moved commit
542 from `pick` to `squash` (or `fixup`). A commit matches the `...` if
543 the commit subject matches, or if the `...` refers to the commit's
544 hash. As a fall-back, partial matches of the commit subject work,
545 too. The recommended way to create fixup/squash commits is by using
546 the `--fixup`/`--squash` options of linkgit:git-commit[1].
f59baa50 547+
bcf9626a 548If the `--autosquash` option is enabled by default using the
da0005b8 549configuration variable `rebase.autoSquash`, this option can be
dd1e5b31 550used to override and disable this setting.
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551+
552See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
b4995494 553
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554--autostash::
555--no-autostash::
e01db917 556 Automatically create a temporary stash entry before the operation
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557 begins, and apply it after the operation ends. This means
558 that you can run rebase on a dirty worktree. However, use
559 with care: the final stash application after a successful
560 rebase might result in non-trivial conflicts.
561
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562--reschedule-failed-exec::
563--no-reschedule-failed-exec::
564 Automatically reschedule `exec` commands that failed. This only makes
565 sense in interactive mode (or when an `--exec` option was provided).
566
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567INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS
568--------------------
569
68aa495b 570The following options:
5dacd4ab 571
10cdb9f3 572 * --apply
4d924528
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573 * --committer-date-is-author-date
574 * --ignore-date
4d924528 575 * --ignore-whitespace
be50c938 576 * --whitespace
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577 * -C
578
68aa495b 579are incompatible with the following options:
5dacd4ab
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580
581 * --merge
582 * --strategy
583 * --strategy-option
584 * --allow-empty-message
5dacd4ab
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585 * --[no-]autosquash
586 * --rebase-merges
587 * --preserve-merges
588 * --interactive
589 * --exec
590 * --keep-empty
e98c4269 591 * --empty=
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592 * --edit-todo
593 * --root when used in combination with --onto
594
68aa495b 595In addition, the following pairs of options are incompatible:
5dacd4ab
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596
597 * --preserve-merges and --interactive
598 * --preserve-merges and --signoff
599 * --preserve-merges and --rebase-merges
e98c4269 600 * --preserve-merges and --empty=
414d924b
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601 * --keep-base and --onto
602 * --keep-base and --root
5dacd4ab 603
0661e49a
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604BEHAVIORAL DIFFERENCES
605-----------------------
606
10cdb9f3
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607git rebase has two primary backends: apply and merge. (The apply
608backend used to known as the 'am' backend, but the name led to
609confusion as it looks like a verb instead of a noun. Also, the merge
610backend used to be known as the interactive backend, but it is now
611used for non-interactive cases as well. Both were renamed based on
612lower-level functionality that underpinned each.) There are some
613subtle differences in how these two backends behave:
0661e49a 614
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615Empty commits
616~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0661e49a 617
10cdb9f3 618The apply backend unfortunately drops intentionally empty commits, i.e.
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619commits that started empty, though these are rare in practice. It
620also drops commits that become empty and has no option for controlling
621this behavior.
0661e49a 622
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623The merge backend keeps intentionally empty commits. Similar to the
624apply backend, by default the merge backend drops commits that become
625empty unless -i/--interactive is specified (in which case it stops and
626asks the user what to do). The merge backend also has an
627--empty={drop,keep,ask} option for changing the behavior of handling
628commits that become empty.
0661e49a 629
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630Directory rename detection
631~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
632
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633Due to the lack of accurate tree information (arising from
634constructing fake ancestors with the limited information available in
10cdb9f3 635patches), directory rename detection is disabled in the apply backend.
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636Disabled directory rename detection means that if one side of history
637renames a directory and the other adds new files to the old directory,
638then the new files will be left behind in the old directory without
639any warning at the time of rebasing that you may want to move these
640files into the new directory.
641
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642Directory rename detection works with the merge backend to provide you
643warnings in such cases.
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644
645Context
646~~~~~~~
647
10cdb9f3 648The apply backend works by creating a sequence of patches (by calling
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649`format-patch` internally), and then applying the patches in sequence
650(calling `am` internally). Patches are composed of multiple hunks,
651each with line numbers, a context region, and the actual changes. The
652line numbers have to be taken with some fuzz, since the other side
653will likely have inserted or deleted lines earlier in the file. The
654context region is meant to help find how to adjust the line numbers in
655order to apply the changes to the right lines. However, if multiple
656areas of the code have the same surrounding lines of context, the
657wrong one can be picked. There are real-world cases where this has
658caused commits to be reapplied incorrectly with no conflicts reported.
659Setting diff.context to a larger value may prevent such types of
660problems, but increases the chance of spurious conflicts (since it
661will require more lines of matching context to apply).
662
10cdb9f3 663The merge backend works with a full copy of each relevant file,
be50c938
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664insulating it from these types of problems.
665
666Labelling of conflicts markers
667~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
668
669When there are content conflicts, the merge machinery tries to
670annotate each side's conflict markers with the commits where the
10cdb9f3 671content came from. Since the apply backend drops the original
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672information about the rebased commits and their parents (and instead
673generates new fake commits based off limited information in the
674generated patches), those commits cannot be identified; instead it has
675to fall back to a commit summary. Also, when merge.conflictStyle is
10cdb9f3 676set to diff3, the apply backend will use "constructed merge base" to
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677label the content from the merge base, and thus provide no information
678about the merge base commit whatsoever.
679
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680The merge backend works with the full commits on both sides of history
681and thus has no such limitations.
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682
683Hooks
684~~~~~
685
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686The apply backend has not traditionally called the post-commit hook,
687while the merge backend has. However, this was by accident of
688implementation rather than by design. Both backends should have the
689same behavior, though it is not clear which one is correct.
be50c938 690
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691Interruptability
692~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
693
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694The apply backend has safety problems with an ill-timed interrupt; if
695the user presses Ctrl-C at the wrong time to try to abort the rebase,
696the rebase can enter a state where it cannot be aborted with a
697subsequent `git rebase --abort`. The merge backend does not appear to
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698suffer from the same shortcoming. (See
699https://lore.kernel.org/git/20200207132152.GC2868@szeder.dev/ for
700details.)
701
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702Commit Rewording
703~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
704
705When a conflict occurs while rebasing, rebase stops and asks the user
706to resolve. Since the user may need to make notable changes while
707resolving conflicts, after conflicts are resolved and the user has run
708`git rebase --continue`, the rebase should open an editor and ask the
709user to update the commit message. The merge backend does this, while
710the apply backend blindly applies the original commit message.
711
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712Miscellaneous differences
713~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
714
715There are a few more behavioral differences that most folks would
716probably consider inconsequential but which are mentioned for
717completeness:
718
719* Reflog: The two backends will use different wording when describing
720 the changes made in the reflog, though both will make use of the
721 word "rebase".
722
723* Progress, informational, and error messages: The two backends
724 provide slightly different progress and informational messages.
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725 Also, the apply backend writes error messages (such as "Your files
726 would be overwritten...") to stdout, while the merge backend writes
727 them to stderr.
be50c938
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728
729* State directories: The two backends keep their state in different
730 directories under .git/
f59baa50 731
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732include::merge-strategies.txt[]
733
031321c6
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734NOTES
735-----
90d1c08e 736
0b444cdb 737You should understand the implications of using 'git rebase' on a
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738repository that you share. See also RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
739below.
031321c6 740
467c0197 741When the git-rebase command is run, it will first execute a "pre-rebase"
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742hook if one exists. You can use this hook to do sanity checks and
743reject the rebase if it isn't appropriate. Please see the template
744pre-rebase hook script for an example.
745
702088af 746Upon completion, <branch> will be the current branch.
031321c6 747
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748INTERACTIVE MODE
749----------------
750
751Rebasing interactively means that you have a chance to edit the commits
752which are rebased. You can reorder the commits, and you can
753remove them (weeding out bad or otherwise unwanted patches).
754
755The interactive mode is meant for this type of workflow:
756
7571. have a wonderful idea
7582. hack on the code
7593. prepare a series for submission
7604. submit
761
762where point 2. consists of several instances of
763
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764a) regular use
765
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766 1. finish something worthy of a commit
767 2. commit
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768
769b) independent fixup
770
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771 1. realize that something does not work
772 2. fix that
773 3. commit it
774
775Sometimes the thing fixed in b.2. cannot be amended to the not-quite
776perfect commit it fixes, because that commit is buried deeply in a
777patch series. That is exactly what interactive rebase is for: use it
778after plenty of "a"s and "b"s, by rearranging and editing
779commits, and squashing multiple commits into one.
780
781Start it with the last commit you want to retain as-is:
782
783 git rebase -i <after-this-commit>
784
785An editor will be fired up with all the commits in your current branch
786(ignoring merge commits), which come after the given commit. You can
787reorder the commits in this list to your heart's content, and you can
788remove them. The list looks more or less like this:
789
790-------------------------------------------
791pick deadbee The oneline of this commit
792pick fa1afe1 The oneline of the next commit
793...
794-------------------------------------------
795
0b444cdb 796The oneline descriptions are purely for your pleasure; 'git rebase' will
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797not look at them but at the commit names ("deadbee" and "fa1afe1" in this
798example), so do not delete or edit the names.
799
800By replacing the command "pick" with the command "edit", you can tell
0b444cdb 801'git rebase' to stop after applying that commit, so that you can edit
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802the files and/or the commit message, amend the commit, and continue
803rebasing.
804
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805To interrupt the rebase (just like an "edit" command would do, but without
806cherry-picking any commit first), use the "break" command.
807
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808If you just want to edit the commit message for a commit, replace the
809command "pick" with the command "reword".
810
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811To drop a commit, replace the command "pick" with "drop", or just
812delete the matching line.
813
1b1dce4b 814If you want to fold two or more commits into one, replace the command
0205e72f
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815"pick" for the second and subsequent commits with "squash" or "fixup".
816If the commits had different authors, the folded commit will be
817attributed to the author of the first commit. The suggested commit
818message for the folded commit is the concatenation of the commit
819messages of the first commit and of those with the "squash" command,
820but omits the commit messages of commits with the "fixup" command.
1b1dce4b 821
0b444cdb 822'git rebase' will stop when "pick" has been replaced with "edit" or
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823when a command fails due to merge errors. When you are done editing
824and/or resolving conflicts you can continue with `git rebase --continue`.
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825
826For example, if you want to reorder the last 5 commits, such that what
827was HEAD~4 becomes the new HEAD. To achieve that, you would call
0b444cdb 828'git rebase' like this:
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JS
829
830----------------------
831$ git rebase -i HEAD~5
832----------------------
833
834And move the first patch to the end of the list.
835
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836You might want to recreate merge commits, e.g. if you have a history
837like this:
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838
839------------------
840 X
841 \
842 A---M---B
843 /
844---o---O---P---Q
845------------------
846
847Suppose you want to rebase the side branch starting at "A" to "Q". Make
848sure that the current HEAD is "B", and call
849
850-----------------------------
7948b49a 851$ git rebase -i -r --onto Q O
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852-----------------------------
853
cd035b1c
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854Reordering and editing commits usually creates untested intermediate
855steps. You may want to check that your history editing did not break
856anything by running a test, or at least recompiling at intermediate
857points in history by using the "exec" command (shortcut "x"). You may
858do so by creating a todo list like this one:
859
860-------------------------------------------
861pick deadbee Implement feature XXX
862fixup f1a5c00 Fix to feature XXX
863exec make
864pick c0ffeee The oneline of the next commit
865edit deadbab The oneline of the commit after
866exec cd subdir; make test
867...
868-------------------------------------------
869
870The interactive rebase will stop when a command fails (i.e. exits with
871non-0 status) to give you an opportunity to fix the problem. You can
872continue with `git rebase --continue`.
873
874The "exec" command launches the command in a shell (the one specified
875in `$SHELL`, or the default shell if `$SHELL` is not set), so you can
876use shell features (like "cd", ">", ";" ...). The command is run from
877the root of the working tree.
f0fd889d 878
c2145384
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879----------------------------------
880$ git rebase -i --exec "make test"
881----------------------------------
882
883This command lets you check that intermediate commits are compilable.
884The todo list becomes like that:
885
886--------------------
887pick 5928aea one
888exec make test
889pick 04d0fda two
890exec make test
891pick ba46169 three
892exec make test
893pick f4593f9 four
894exec make test
895--------------------
896
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897SPLITTING COMMITS
898-----------------
899
900In interactive mode, you can mark commits with the action "edit". However,
0b444cdb 901this does not necessarily mean that 'git rebase' expects the result of this
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902edit to be exactly one commit. Indeed, you can undo the commit, or you can
903add other commits. This can be used to split a commit into two:
904
483bc4f0 905- Start an interactive rebase with `git rebase -i <commit>^`, where
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906 <commit> is the commit you want to split. In fact, any commit range
907 will do, as long as it contains that commit.
908
909- Mark the commit you want to split with the action "edit".
910
483bc4f0 911- When it comes to editing that commit, execute `git reset HEAD^`. The
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912 effect is that the HEAD is rewound by one, and the index follows suit.
913 However, the working tree stays the same.
914
915- Now add the changes to the index that you want to have in the first
483bc4f0 916 commit. You can use `git add` (possibly interactively) or
0b444cdb 917 'git gui' (or both) to do that.
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918
919- Commit the now-current index with whatever commit message is appropriate
920 now.
921
922- Repeat the last two steps until your working tree is clean.
923
483bc4f0 924- Continue the rebase with `git rebase --continue`.
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925
926If you are not absolutely sure that the intermediate revisions are
927consistent (they compile, pass the testsuite, etc.) you should use
0b444cdb 928'git stash' to stash away the not-yet-committed changes
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929after each commit, test, and amend the commit if fixes are necessary.
930
931
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932RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
933-------------------------------
934
935Rebasing (or any other form of rewriting) a branch that others have
936based work on is a bad idea: anyone downstream of it is forced to
937manually fix their history. This section explains how to do the fix
938from the downstream's point of view. The real fix, however, would be
939to avoid rebasing the upstream in the first place.
940
941To illustrate, suppose you are in a situation where someone develops a
942'subsystem' branch, and you are working on a 'topic' that is dependent
943on this 'subsystem'. You might end up with a history like the
944following:
945
946------------
01826066 947 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
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948 \
949 o---o---o---o---o subsystem
950 \
951 *---*---* topic
952------------
953
954If 'subsystem' is rebased against 'master', the following happens:
955
956------------
957 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
958 \ \
959 o---o---o---o---o o'--o'--o'--o'--o' subsystem
960 \
961 *---*---* topic
962------------
963
964If you now continue development as usual, and eventually merge 'topic'
965to 'subsystem', the commits from 'subsystem' will remain duplicated forever:
966
967------------
968 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
969 \ \
970 o---o---o---o---o o'--o'--o'--o'--o'--M subsystem
971 \ /
972 *---*---*-..........-*--* topic
973------------
974
975Such duplicates are generally frowned upon because they clutter up
976history, making it harder to follow. To clean things up, you need to
977transplant the commits on 'topic' to the new 'subsystem' tip, i.e.,
978rebase 'topic'. This becomes a ripple effect: anyone downstream from
979'topic' is forced to rebase too, and so on!
980
981There are two kinds of fixes, discussed in the following subsections:
982
983Easy case: The changes are literally the same.::
984
985 This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase was a simple rebase and
986 had no conflicts.
987
988Hard case: The changes are not the same.::
989
990 This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase had conflicts, or used
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991 `--interactive` to omit, edit, squash, or fixup commits; or
992 if the upstream used one of `commit --amend`, `reset`, or
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993 a full history rewriting command like
994 https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo[`filter-repo`].
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995
996
997The easy case
998~~~~~~~~~~~~~
999
1000Only works if the changes (patch IDs based on the diff contents) on
1001'subsystem' are literally the same before and after the rebase
1002'subsystem' did.
1003
0b444cdb 1004In that case, the fix is easy because 'git rebase' knows to skip
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1005changes that are already present in the new upstream. So if you say
1006(assuming you're on 'topic')
1007------------
1008 $ git rebase subsystem
1009------------
1010you will end up with the fixed history
1011------------
1012 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
1013 \
1014 o'--o'--o'--o'--o' subsystem
1015 \
1016 *---*---* topic
1017------------
1018
1019
1020The hard case
1021~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1022
1023Things get more complicated if the 'subsystem' changes do not exactly
1024correspond to the ones before the rebase.
1025
1026NOTE: While an "easy case recovery" sometimes appears to be successful
1027 even in the hard case, it may have unintended consequences. For
1028 example, a commit that was removed via `git rebase
6cf378f0 1029 --interactive` will be **resurrected**!
90d1c08e 1030
0b444cdb 1031The idea is to manually tell 'git rebase' "where the old 'subsystem'
414d924b 1032ended and your 'topic' began", that is, what the old merge base
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1033between them was. You will have to find a way to name the last commit
1034of the old 'subsystem', for example:
1035
0b444cdb 1036* With the 'subsystem' reflog: after 'git fetch', the old tip of
6cf378f0 1037 'subsystem' is at `subsystem@{1}`. Subsequent fetches will
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1038 increase the number. (See linkgit:git-reflog[1].)
1039
1040* Relative to the tip of 'topic': knowing that your 'topic' has three
1041 commits, the old tip of 'subsystem' must be `topic~3`.
1042
1043You can then transplant the old `subsystem..topic` to the new tip by
1044saying (for the reflog case, and assuming you are on 'topic' already):
1045------------
1046 $ git rebase --onto subsystem subsystem@{1}
1047------------
1048
1049The ripple effect of a "hard case" recovery is especially bad:
1050'everyone' downstream from 'topic' will now have to perform a "hard
1051case" recovery too!
1052
25cff9f1 1053REBASING MERGES
81d395cc 1054---------------
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1055
1056The interactive rebase command was originally designed to handle
1057individual patch series. As such, it makes sense to exclude merge
1058commits from the todo list, as the developer may have merged the
1059then-current `master` while working on the branch, only to rebase
1060all the commits onto `master` eventually (skipping the merge
1061commits).
1062
1063However, there are legitimate reasons why a developer may want to
1064recreate merge commits: to keep the branch structure (or "commit
1065topology") when working on multiple, inter-related branches.
1066
1067In the following example, the developer works on a topic branch that
1068refactors the way buttons are defined, and on another topic branch
1069that uses that refactoring to implement a "Report a bug" button. The
1070output of `git log --graph --format=%s -5` may look like this:
1071
1072------------
1073* Merge branch 'report-a-bug'
1074|\
1075| * Add the feedback button
1076* | Merge branch 'refactor-button'
1077|\ \
1078| |/
1079| * Use the Button class for all buttons
1080| * Extract a generic Button class from the DownloadButton one
1081------------
1082
1083The developer might want to rebase those commits to a newer `master`
1084while keeping the branch topology, for example when the first topic
1085branch is expected to be integrated into `master` much earlier than the
1086second one, say, to resolve merge conflicts with changes to the
1087DownloadButton class that made it into `master`.
1088
1089This rebase can be performed using the `--rebase-merges` option.
1090It will generate a todo list looking like this:
1091
1092------------
1093label onto
1094
1095# Branch: refactor-button
1096reset onto
1097pick 123456 Extract a generic Button class from the DownloadButton one
1098pick 654321 Use the Button class for all buttons
1099label refactor-button
1100
1101# Branch: report-a-bug
1102reset refactor-button # Use the Button class for all buttons
1103pick abcdef Add the feedback button
1104label report-a-bug
1105
1106reset onto
1107merge -C a1b2c3 refactor-button # Merge 'refactor-button'
1108merge -C 6f5e4d report-a-bug # Merge 'report-a-bug'
1109------------
1110
1111In contrast to a regular interactive rebase, there are `label`, `reset`
1112and `merge` commands in addition to `pick` ones.
1113
1114The `label` command associates a label with the current HEAD when that
1115command is executed. These labels are created as worktree-local refs
1116(`refs/rewritten/<label>`) that will be deleted when the rebase
1117finishes. That way, rebase operations in multiple worktrees linked to
1118the same repository do not interfere with one another. If the `label`
1119command fails, it is rescheduled immediately, with a helpful message how
1120to proceed.
1121
1122The `reset` command resets the HEAD, index and worktree to the specified
ad0b8f95 1123revision. It is similar to an `exec git reset --hard <label>`, but
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JS
1124refuses to overwrite untracked files. If the `reset` command fails, it is
1125rescheduled immediately, with a helpful message how to edit the todo list
1126(this typically happens when a `reset` command was inserted into the todo
1127list manually and contains a typo).
1128
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1129The `merge` command will merge the specified revision(s) into whatever
1130is HEAD at that time. With `-C <original-commit>`, the commit message of
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1131the specified merge commit will be used. When the `-C` is changed to
1132a lower-case `-c`, the message will be opened in an editor after a
1133successful merge so that the user can edit the message.
1134
1135If a `merge` command fails for any reason other than merge conflicts (i.e.
1136when the merge operation did not even start), it is rescheduled immediately.
1137
1138At this time, the `merge` command will *always* use the `recursive`
caafecfc 1139merge strategy for regular merges, and `octopus` for octopus merges,
57e9dcaa 1140with no way to choose a different one. To work around
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JS
1141this, an `exec` command can be used to call `git merge` explicitly,
1142using the fact that the labels are worktree-local refs (the ref
1143`refs/rewritten/onto` would correspond to the label `onto`, for example).
1144
1145Note: the first command (`label onto`) labels the revision onto which
1146the commits are rebased; The name `onto` is just a convention, as a nod
1147to the `--onto` option.
1148
1149It is also possible to introduce completely new merge commits from scratch
1150by adding a command of the form `merge <merge-head>`. This form will
1151generate a tentative commit message and always open an editor to let the
1152user edit it. This can be useful e.g. when a topic branch turns out to
1153address more than a single concern and wants to be split into two or
1154even more topic branches. Consider this todo list:
1155
1156------------
1157pick 192837 Switch from GNU Makefiles to CMake
1158pick 5a6c7e Document the switch to CMake
1159pick 918273 Fix detection of OpenSSL in CMake
1160pick afbecd http: add support for TLS v1.3
1161pick fdbaec Fix detection of cURL in CMake on Windows
1162------------
1163
1164The one commit in this list that is not related to CMake may very well
1165have been motivated by working on fixing all those bugs introduced by
1166switching to CMake, but it addresses a different concern. To split this
1167branch into two topic branches, the todo list could be edited like this:
1168
1169------------
1170label onto
1171
1172pick afbecd http: add support for TLS v1.3
1173label tlsv1.3
1174
1175reset onto
1176pick 192837 Switch from GNU Makefiles to CMake
1177pick 918273 Fix detection of OpenSSL in CMake
1178pick fdbaec Fix detection of cURL in CMake on Windows
1179pick 5a6c7e Document the switch to CMake
1180label cmake
1181
1182reset onto
1183merge tlsv1.3
1184merge cmake
1185------------
1186
cddb42d2
JN
1187BUGS
1188----
427c3bd2
JS
1189The todo list presented by the deprecated `--preserve-merges --interactive`
1190does not represent the topology of the revision graph (use `--rebase-merges`
1191instead). Editing commits and rewording their commit messages should work
1192fine, but attempts to reorder commits tend to produce counterintuitive results.
1193Use `--rebase-merges` in such scenarios instead.
cddb42d2
JN
1194
1195For example, an attempt to rearrange
1196------------
11971 --- 2 --- 3 --- 4 --- 5
1198------------
1199to
1200------------
12011 --- 2 --- 4 --- 3 --- 5
1202------------
1203by moving the "pick 4" line will result in the following history:
1204------------
1205 3
1206 /
12071 --- 2 --- 4 --- 5
1208------------
1209
7fc9d69f
JH
1210GIT
1211---
9e1f0a85 1212Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite