6 git-rebase - Reapply commits on top of another base tip
11 'git rebase' [-i | --interactive] [<options>] [--exec <cmd>] [--onto <newbase>]
12 [<upstream> [<branch>]]
13 'git rebase' [-i | --interactive] [<options>] [--exec <cmd>] [--onto <newbase>]
15 'git rebase' --continue | --skip | --abort | --quit | --edit-todo | --show-current-patch
19 If <branch> is specified, 'git rebase' will perform an automatic
20 `git checkout <branch>` before doing anything else. Otherwise
21 it remains on the current branch.
23 If <upstream> is not specified, the upstream configured in
24 branch.<name>.remote and branch.<name>.merge options will be used (see
25 linkgit:git-config[1] for details) and the `--fork-point` option is
26 assumed. If you are currently not on any branch or if the current
27 branch does not have a configured upstream, the rebase will abort.
29 All changes made by commits in the current branch but that are not
30 in <upstream> are saved to a temporary area. This is the same set
31 of 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
33 description on `--fork-point` below); or by `git log HEAD`, if the
34 `--root` option is specified.
36 The current branch is reset to <upstream>, or <newbase> if the
37 --onto option was supplied. This has the exact same effect as
38 `git reset --hard <upstream>` (or <newbase>). ORIG_HEAD is set
39 to point at the tip of the branch before the reset.
41 The commits that were previously saved into the temporary area are
42 then reapplied to the current branch, one by one, in order. Note that
43 any commits in HEAD which introduce the same textual changes as a commit
44 in HEAD..<upstream> are omitted (i.e., a patch already accepted upstream
45 with a different commit message or timestamp will be skipped).
47 It is possible that a merge failure will prevent this process from being
48 completely automatic. You will have to resolve any such merge failure
49 and run `git rebase --continue`. Another option is to bypass the commit
50 that caused the merge failure with `git rebase --skip`. To check out the
51 original <branch> and remove the .git/rebase-apply working files, use the
52 command `git rebase --abort` instead.
54 Assume the following history exists and the current branch is "topic":
62 From this point, the result of either of the following commands:
66 git rebase master topic
76 *NOTE:* The latter form is just a short-hand of `git checkout topic`
77 followed by `git rebase master`. When rebase exits `topic` will
78 remain the checked-out branch.
80 If the upstream branch already contains a change you have made (e.g.,
81 because you mailed a patch which was applied upstream), then that commit
82 will be skipped. For example, running `git rebase master` on the
83 following history (in which `A'` and `A` introduce the same set of changes,
84 but have different committer information):
100 Here is how you would transplant a topic branch based on one
101 branch to another, to pretend that you forked the topic branch
102 from the latter branch, using `rebase --onto`.
104 First let's assume your 'topic' is based on branch 'next'.
105 For example, a feature developed in 'topic' depends on some
106 functionality which is found in 'next'.
109 o---o---o---o---o master
111 o---o---o---o---o next
116 We want to make 'topic' forked from branch 'master'; for example,
117 because the functionality on which 'topic' depends was merged into the
118 more stable 'master' branch. We want our tree to look like this:
121 o---o---o---o---o master
125 o---o---o---o---o next
128 We can get this using the following command:
130 git rebase --onto master next topic
133 Another example of --onto option is to rebase part of a
134 branch. If we have the following situation:
146 git rebase --onto master topicA topicB
158 This is useful when topicB does not depend on topicA.
160 A range of commits could also be removed with rebase. If we have
161 the following situation:
164 E---F---G---H---I---J topicA
169 git rebase --onto topicA~5 topicA~3 topicA
171 would result in the removal of commits F and G:
174 E---H'---I'---J' topicA
177 This is useful if F and G were flawed in some way, or should not be
178 part of topicA. Note that the argument to --onto and the <upstream>
179 parameter can be any valid commit-ish.
181 In case of conflict, 'git rebase' will stop at the first problematic commit
182 and leave conflict markers in the tree. You can use 'git diff' to locate
183 the markers (<<<<<<) and make edits to resolve the conflict. For each
184 file you edit, you need to tell Git that the conflict has been resolved,
185 typically this would be done with
191 After resolving the conflict manually and updating the index with the
192 desired resolution, you can continue the rebasing process with
195 git rebase --continue
198 Alternatively, you can undo the 'git rebase' with
206 include::config/rebase.txt[]
211 Starting point at which to create the new commits. If the
212 --onto option is not specified, the starting point is
213 <upstream>. May be any valid commit, and not just an
214 existing branch name.
216 As a special case, you may use "A\...B" as a shortcut for the
217 merge base of A and B if there is exactly one merge base. You can
218 leave out at most one of A and B, in which case it defaults to HEAD.
221 Upstream branch to compare against. May be any valid commit,
222 not just an existing branch name. Defaults to the configured
223 upstream for the current branch.
226 Working branch; defaults to HEAD.
229 Restart the rebasing process after having resolved a merge conflict.
232 Abort the rebase operation and reset HEAD to the original
233 branch. If <branch> was provided when the rebase operation was
234 started, then HEAD will be reset to <branch>. Otherwise HEAD
235 will be reset to where it was when the rebase operation was
239 Abort the rebase operation but HEAD is not reset back to the
240 original branch. The index and working tree are also left
241 unchanged as a result.
244 Keep the commits that do not change anything from its
245 parents in the result.
247 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
249 --allow-empty-message::
250 By default, rebasing commits with an empty message will fail.
251 This option overrides that behavior, allowing commits with empty
252 messages to be rebased.
254 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
257 Restart the rebasing process by skipping the current patch.
260 Edit the todo list during an interactive rebase.
262 --show-current-patch::
263 Show the current patch in an interactive rebase or when rebase
264 is stopped because of conflicts. This is the equivalent of
265 `git show REBASE_HEAD`.
269 Use merging strategies to rebase. When the recursive (default) merge
270 strategy is used, this allows rebase to be aware of renames on the
273 Note that a rebase merge works by replaying each commit from the working
274 branch on top of the <upstream> branch. Because of this, when a merge
275 conflict happens, the side reported as 'ours' is the so-far rebased
276 series, starting with <upstream>, and 'theirs' is the working branch. In
277 other words, the sides are swapped.
279 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
282 --strategy=<strategy>::
283 Use the given merge strategy.
284 If there is no `-s` option 'git merge-recursive' is used
285 instead. This implies --merge.
287 Because 'git rebase' replays each commit from the working branch
288 on top of the <upstream> branch using the given strategy, using
289 the 'ours' strategy simply empties all patches from the <branch>,
290 which makes little sense.
292 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
294 -X <strategy-option>::
295 --strategy-option=<strategy-option>::
296 Pass the <strategy-option> through to the merge strategy.
297 This implies `--merge` and, if no strategy has been
298 specified, `-s recursive`. Note the reversal of 'ours' and
299 'theirs' as noted above for the `-m` option.
301 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
304 --gpg-sign[=<keyid>]::
305 GPG-sign commits. The `keyid` argument is optional and
306 defaults to the committer identity; if specified, it must be
307 stuck to the option without a space.
311 Be quiet. Implies --no-stat.
315 Be verbose. Implies --stat.
318 Show a diffstat of what changed upstream since the last rebase. The
319 diffstat is also controlled by the configuration option rebase.stat.
323 Do not show a diffstat as part of the rebase process.
326 This option bypasses the pre-rebase hook. See also linkgit:githooks[5].
329 Allows the pre-rebase hook to run, which is the default. This option can
330 be used to override --no-verify. See also linkgit:githooks[5].
333 Ensure at least <n> lines of surrounding context match before
334 and after each change. When fewer lines of surrounding
335 context exist they all must match. By default no context is
338 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
343 Individually replay all rebased commits instead of fast-forwarding
344 over the unchanged ones. This ensures that the entire history of
345 the rebased branch is composed of new commits.
347 You may find this helpful after reverting a topic branch merge, as this option
348 recreates the topic branch with fresh commits so it can be remerged
349 successfully without needing to "revert the reversion" (see the
350 link:howto/revert-a-faulty-merge.html[revert-a-faulty-merge How-To] for
355 Use reflog to find a better common ancestor between <upstream>
356 and <branch> when calculating which commits have been
357 introduced by <branch>.
359 When --fork-point is active, 'fork_point' will be used instead of
360 <upstream> to calculate the set of commits to rebase, where
361 'fork_point' is the result of `git merge-base --fork-point <upstream>
362 <branch>` command (see linkgit:git-merge-base[1]). If 'fork_point'
363 ends up being empty, the <upstream> will be used as a fallback.
365 If either <upstream> or --root is given on the command line, then the
366 default is `--no-fork-point`, otherwise the default is `--fork-point`.
368 --ignore-whitespace::
369 --whitespace=<option>::
370 These flag are passed to the 'git apply' program
371 (see linkgit:git-apply[1]) that applies the patch.
373 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
375 --committer-date-is-author-date::
377 These flags are passed to 'git am' to easily change the dates
378 of the rebased commits (see linkgit:git-am[1]).
380 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
383 Add a Signed-off-by: trailer to all the rebased commits. Note
384 that if `--interactive` is given then only commits marked to be
385 picked, edited or reworded will have the trailer added.
387 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
391 Make a list of the commits which are about to be rebased. Let the
392 user edit that list before rebasing. This mode can also be used to
393 split commits (see SPLITTING COMMITS below).
395 The commit list format can be changed by setting the configuration option
396 rebase.instructionFormat. A customized instruction format will automatically
397 have the long commit hash prepended to the format.
399 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
402 --rebase-merges[=(rebase-cousins|no-rebase-cousins)]::
403 By default, a rebase will simply drop merge commits from the todo
404 list, and put the rebased commits into a single, linear branch.
405 With `--rebase-merges`, the rebase will instead try to preserve
406 the branching structure within the commits that are to be rebased,
407 by recreating the merge commits. Any resolved merge conflicts or
408 manual amendments in these merge commits will have to be
409 resolved/re-applied manually.
411 By default, or when `no-rebase-cousins` was specified, commits which do not
412 have `<upstream>` as direct ancestor will keep their original branch point,
413 i.e. commits that would be excluded by gitlink:git-log[1]'s
414 `--ancestry-path` option will keep their original ancestry by default. If
415 the `rebase-cousins` mode is turned on, such commits are instead rebased
416 onto `<upstream>` (or `<onto>`, if specified).
418 The `--rebase-merges` mode is similar in spirit to `--preserve-merges`, but
419 in contrast to that option works well in interactive rebases: commits can be
420 reordered, inserted and dropped at will.
422 It is currently only possible to recreate the merge commits using the
423 `recursive` merge strategy; Different merge strategies can be used only via
424 explicit `exec git merge -s <strategy> [...]` commands.
426 See also REBASING MERGES and INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
430 Recreate merge commits instead of flattening the history by replaying
431 commits a merge commit introduces. Merge conflict resolutions or manual
432 amendments to merge commits are not preserved.
434 This uses the `--interactive` machinery internally, but combining it
435 with the `--interactive` option explicitly is generally not a good
436 idea unless you know what you are doing (see BUGS below).
438 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
442 Append "exec <cmd>" after each line creating a commit in the
443 final history. <cmd> will be interpreted as one or more shell
444 commands. Any command that fails will interrupt the rebase,
447 You may execute several commands by either using one instance of `--exec`
448 with several commands:
450 git rebase -i --exec "cmd1 && cmd2 && ..."
452 or by giving more than one `--exec`:
454 git rebase -i --exec "cmd1" --exec "cmd2" --exec ...
456 If `--autosquash` is used, "exec" lines will not be appended for
457 the intermediate commits, and will only appear at the end of each
460 This uses the `--interactive` machinery internally, but it can be run
461 without an explicit `--interactive`.
463 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
466 Rebase all commits reachable from <branch>, instead of
467 limiting them with an <upstream>. This allows you to rebase
468 the root commit(s) on a branch. When used with --onto, it
469 will skip changes already contained in <newbase> (instead of
470 <upstream>) whereas without --onto it will operate on every change.
471 When used together with both --onto and --preserve-merges,
472 'all' root commits will be rewritten to have <newbase> as parent
475 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
479 When the commit log message begins with "squash! ..." (or
480 "fixup! ..."), and there is already a commit in the todo list that
481 matches the same `...`, automatically modify the todo list of rebase
482 -i so that the commit marked for squashing comes right after the
483 commit to be modified, and change the action of the moved commit
484 from `pick` to `squash` (or `fixup`). A commit matches the `...` if
485 the commit subject matches, or if the `...` refers to the commit's
486 hash. As a fall-back, partial matches of the commit subject work,
487 too. The recommended way to create fixup/squash commits is by using
488 the `--fixup`/`--squash` options of linkgit:git-commit[1].
490 If the `--autosquash` option is enabled by default using the
491 configuration variable `rebase.autoSquash`, this option can be
492 used to override and disable this setting.
494 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
498 Automatically create a temporary stash entry before the operation
499 begins, and apply it after the operation ends. This means
500 that you can run rebase on a dirty worktree. However, use
501 with care: the final stash application after a successful
502 rebase might result in non-trivial conflicts.
504 --reschedule-failed-exec::
505 --no-reschedule-failed-exec::
506 Automatically reschedule `exec` commands that failed. This only makes
507 sense in interactive mode (or when an `--exec` option was provided).
512 git-rebase has many flags that are incompatible with each other,
513 predominantly due to the fact that it has three different underlying
516 * one based on linkgit:git-am[1] (the default)
517 * one based on git-merge-recursive (merge backend)
518 * one based on linkgit:git-cherry-pick[1] (interactive backend)
520 Flags only understood by the am backend:
522 * --committer-date-is-author-date
525 * --ignore-whitespace
528 Flags understood by both merge and interactive backends:
533 * --allow-empty-message
535 Flags only understood by the interactive backend:
545 * --root when used in combination with --onto
547 Other incompatible flag pairs:
549 * --preserve-merges and --interactive
550 * --preserve-merges and --signoff
551 * --preserve-merges and --rebase-merges
552 * --rebase-merges and --strategy
553 * --rebase-merges and --strategy-option
555 BEHAVIORAL DIFFERENCES
556 -----------------------
558 There are some subtle differences how the backends behave.
563 The am backend drops any "empty" commits, regardless of whether the
564 commit started empty (had no changes relative to its parent to
565 start with) or ended empty (all changes were already applied
566 upstream in other commits).
568 The merge backend does the same.
570 The interactive backend drops commits by default that
571 started empty and halts if it hits a commit that ended up empty.
572 The `--keep-empty` option exists for the interactive backend to allow
573 it to keep commits that started empty.
575 Directory rename detection
576 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
578 The merge and interactive backends work fine with
579 directory rename detection. The am backend sometimes does not.
581 include::merge-strategies.txt[]
586 You should understand the implications of using 'git rebase' on a
587 repository that you share. See also RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
590 When the git-rebase command is run, it will first execute a "pre-rebase"
591 hook if one exists. You can use this hook to do sanity checks and
592 reject the rebase if it isn't appropriate. Please see the template
593 pre-rebase hook script for an example.
595 Upon completion, <branch> will be the current branch.
600 Rebasing interactively means that you have a chance to edit the commits
601 which are rebased. You can reorder the commits, and you can
602 remove them (weeding out bad or otherwise unwanted patches).
604 The interactive mode is meant for this type of workflow:
606 1. have a wonderful idea
608 3. prepare a series for submission
611 where point 2. consists of several instances of
615 1. finish something worthy of a commit
620 1. realize that something does not work
624 Sometimes the thing fixed in b.2. cannot be amended to the not-quite
625 perfect commit it fixes, because that commit is buried deeply in a
626 patch series. That is exactly what interactive rebase is for: use it
627 after plenty of "a"s and "b"s, by rearranging and editing
628 commits, and squashing multiple commits into one.
630 Start it with the last commit you want to retain as-is:
632 git rebase -i <after-this-commit>
634 An editor will be fired up with all the commits in your current branch
635 (ignoring merge commits), which come after the given commit. You can
636 reorder the commits in this list to your heart's content, and you can
637 remove them. The list looks more or less like this:
639 -------------------------------------------
640 pick deadbee The oneline of this commit
641 pick fa1afe1 The oneline of the next commit
643 -------------------------------------------
645 The oneline descriptions are purely for your pleasure; 'git rebase' will
646 not look at them but at the commit names ("deadbee" and "fa1afe1" in this
647 example), so do not delete or edit the names.
649 By replacing the command "pick" with the command "edit", you can tell
650 'git rebase' to stop after applying that commit, so that you can edit
651 the files and/or the commit message, amend the commit, and continue
654 To interrupt the rebase (just like an "edit" command would do, but without
655 cherry-picking any commit first), use the "break" command.
657 If you just want to edit the commit message for a commit, replace the
658 command "pick" with the command "reword".
660 To drop a commit, replace the command "pick" with "drop", or just
661 delete the matching line.
663 If you want to fold two or more commits into one, replace the command
664 "pick" for the second and subsequent commits with "squash" or "fixup".
665 If the commits had different authors, the folded commit will be
666 attributed to the author of the first commit. The suggested commit
667 message for the folded commit is the concatenation of the commit
668 messages of the first commit and of those with the "squash" command,
669 but omits the commit messages of commits with the "fixup" command.
671 'git rebase' will stop when "pick" has been replaced with "edit" or
672 when a command fails due to merge errors. When you are done editing
673 and/or resolving conflicts you can continue with `git rebase --continue`.
675 For example, if you want to reorder the last 5 commits, such that what
676 was HEAD~4 becomes the new HEAD. To achieve that, you would call
677 'git rebase' like this:
679 ----------------------
680 $ git rebase -i HEAD~5
681 ----------------------
683 And move the first patch to the end of the list.
685 You might want to preserve merges, if you have a history like this:
695 Suppose you want to rebase the side branch starting at "A" to "Q". Make
696 sure that the current HEAD is "B", and call
698 -----------------------------
699 $ git rebase -i -p --onto Q O
700 -----------------------------
702 Reordering and editing commits usually creates untested intermediate
703 steps. You may want to check that your history editing did not break
704 anything by running a test, or at least recompiling at intermediate
705 points in history by using the "exec" command (shortcut "x"). You may
706 do so by creating a todo list like this one:
708 -------------------------------------------
709 pick deadbee Implement feature XXX
710 fixup f1a5c00 Fix to feature XXX
712 pick c0ffeee The oneline of the next commit
713 edit deadbab The oneline of the commit after
714 exec cd subdir; make test
716 -------------------------------------------
718 The interactive rebase will stop when a command fails (i.e. exits with
719 non-0 status) to give you an opportunity to fix the problem. You can
720 continue with `git rebase --continue`.
722 The "exec" command launches the command in a shell (the one specified
723 in `$SHELL`, or the default shell if `$SHELL` is not set), so you can
724 use shell features (like "cd", ">", ";" ...). The command is run from
725 the root of the working tree.
727 ----------------------------------
728 $ git rebase -i --exec "make test"
729 ----------------------------------
731 This command lets you check that intermediate commits are compilable.
732 The todo list becomes like that:
748 In interactive mode, you can mark commits with the action "edit". However,
749 this does not necessarily mean that 'git rebase' expects the result of this
750 edit to be exactly one commit. Indeed, you can undo the commit, or you can
751 add other commits. This can be used to split a commit into two:
753 - Start an interactive rebase with `git rebase -i <commit>^`, where
754 <commit> is the commit you want to split. In fact, any commit range
755 will do, as long as it contains that commit.
757 - Mark the commit you want to split with the action "edit".
759 - When it comes to editing that commit, execute `git reset HEAD^`. The
760 effect is that the HEAD is rewound by one, and the index follows suit.
761 However, the working tree stays the same.
763 - Now add the changes to the index that you want to have in the first
764 commit. You can use `git add` (possibly interactively) or
765 'git gui' (or both) to do that.
767 - Commit the now-current index with whatever commit message is appropriate
770 - Repeat the last two steps until your working tree is clean.
772 - Continue the rebase with `git rebase --continue`.
774 If you are not absolutely sure that the intermediate revisions are
775 consistent (they compile, pass the testsuite, etc.) you should use
776 'git stash' to stash away the not-yet-committed changes
777 after each commit, test, and amend the commit if fixes are necessary.
780 RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
781 -------------------------------
783 Rebasing (or any other form of rewriting) a branch that others have
784 based work on is a bad idea: anyone downstream of it is forced to
785 manually fix their history. This section explains how to do the fix
786 from the downstream's point of view. The real fix, however, would be
787 to avoid rebasing the upstream in the first place.
789 To illustrate, suppose you are in a situation where someone develops a
790 'subsystem' branch, and you are working on a 'topic' that is dependent
791 on this 'subsystem'. You might end up with a history like the
795 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
797 o---o---o---o---o subsystem
802 If 'subsystem' is rebased against 'master', the following happens:
805 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
807 o---o---o---o---o o'--o'--o'--o'--o' subsystem
812 If you now continue development as usual, and eventually merge 'topic'
813 to 'subsystem', the commits from 'subsystem' will remain duplicated forever:
816 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
818 o---o---o---o---o o'--o'--o'--o'--o'--M subsystem
820 *---*---*-..........-*--* topic
823 Such duplicates are generally frowned upon because they clutter up
824 history, making it harder to follow. To clean things up, you need to
825 transplant the commits on 'topic' to the new 'subsystem' tip, i.e.,
826 rebase 'topic'. This becomes a ripple effect: anyone downstream from
827 'topic' is forced to rebase too, and so on!
829 There are two kinds of fixes, discussed in the following subsections:
831 Easy case: The changes are literally the same.::
833 This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase was a simple rebase and
836 Hard case: The changes are not the same.::
838 This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase had conflicts, or used
839 `--interactive` to omit, edit, squash, or fixup commits; or
840 if the upstream used one of `commit --amend`, `reset`, or
847 Only works if the changes (patch IDs based on the diff contents) on
848 'subsystem' are literally the same before and after the rebase
851 In that case, the fix is easy because 'git rebase' knows to skip
852 changes that are already present in the new upstream. So if you say
853 (assuming you're on 'topic')
855 $ git rebase subsystem
857 you will end up with the fixed history
859 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
861 o'--o'--o'--o'--o' subsystem
870 Things get more complicated if the 'subsystem' changes do not exactly
871 correspond to the ones before the rebase.
873 NOTE: While an "easy case recovery" sometimes appears to be successful
874 even in the hard case, it may have unintended consequences. For
875 example, a commit that was removed via `git rebase
876 --interactive` will be **resurrected**!
878 The idea is to manually tell 'git rebase' "where the old 'subsystem'
879 ended and your 'topic' began", that is, what the old merge-base
880 between them was. You will have to find a way to name the last commit
881 of the old 'subsystem', for example:
883 * With the 'subsystem' reflog: after 'git fetch', the old tip of
884 'subsystem' is at `subsystem@{1}`. Subsequent fetches will
885 increase the number. (See linkgit:git-reflog[1].)
887 * Relative to the tip of 'topic': knowing that your 'topic' has three
888 commits, the old tip of 'subsystem' must be `topic~3`.
890 You can then transplant the old `subsystem..topic` to the new tip by
891 saying (for the reflog case, and assuming you are on 'topic' already):
893 $ git rebase --onto subsystem subsystem@{1}
896 The ripple effect of a "hard case" recovery is especially bad:
897 'everyone' downstream from 'topic' will now have to perform a "hard
903 The interactive rebase command was originally designed to handle
904 individual patch series. As such, it makes sense to exclude merge
905 commits from the todo list, as the developer may have merged the
906 then-current `master` while working on the branch, only to rebase
907 all the commits onto `master` eventually (skipping the merge
910 However, there are legitimate reasons why a developer may want to
911 recreate merge commits: to keep the branch structure (or "commit
912 topology") when working on multiple, inter-related branches.
914 In the following example, the developer works on a topic branch that
915 refactors the way buttons are defined, and on another topic branch
916 that uses that refactoring to implement a "Report a bug" button. The
917 output of `git log --graph --format=%s -5` may look like this:
920 * Merge branch 'report-a-bug'
922 | * Add the feedback button
923 * | Merge branch 'refactor-button'
926 | * Use the Button class for all buttons
927 | * Extract a generic Button class from the DownloadButton one
930 The developer might want to rebase those commits to a newer `master`
931 while keeping the branch topology, for example when the first topic
932 branch is expected to be integrated into `master` much earlier than the
933 second one, say, to resolve merge conflicts with changes to the
934 DownloadButton class that made it into `master`.
936 This rebase can be performed using the `--rebase-merges` option.
937 It will generate a todo list looking like this:
942 # Branch: refactor-button
944 pick 123456 Extract a generic Button class from the DownloadButton one
945 pick 654321 Use the Button class for all buttons
946 label refactor-button
948 # Branch: report-a-bug
949 reset refactor-button # Use the Button class for all buttons
950 pick abcdef Add the feedback button
954 merge -C a1b2c3 refactor-button # Merge 'refactor-button'
955 merge -C 6f5e4d report-a-bug # Merge 'report-a-bug'
958 In contrast to a regular interactive rebase, there are `label`, `reset`
959 and `merge` commands in addition to `pick` ones.
961 The `label` command associates a label with the current HEAD when that
962 command is executed. These labels are created as worktree-local refs
963 (`refs/rewritten/<label>`) that will be deleted when the rebase
964 finishes. That way, rebase operations in multiple worktrees linked to
965 the same repository do not interfere with one another. If the `label`
966 command fails, it is rescheduled immediately, with a helpful message how
969 The `reset` command resets the HEAD, index and worktree to the specified
970 revision. It is similar to an `exec git reset --hard <label>`, but
971 refuses to overwrite untracked files. If the `reset` command fails, it is
972 rescheduled immediately, with a helpful message how to edit the todo list
973 (this typically happens when a `reset` command was inserted into the todo
974 list manually and contains a typo).
976 The `merge` command will merge the specified revision(s) into whatever
977 is HEAD at that time. With `-C <original-commit>`, the commit message of
978 the specified merge commit will be used. When the `-C` is changed to
979 a lower-case `-c`, the message will be opened in an editor after a
980 successful merge so that the user can edit the message.
982 If a `merge` command fails for any reason other than merge conflicts (i.e.
983 when the merge operation did not even start), it is rescheduled immediately.
985 At this time, the `merge` command will *always* use the `recursive`
986 merge strategy for regular merges, and `octopus` for octopus merges,
987 strategy, with no way to choose a different one. To work around
988 this, an `exec` command can be used to call `git merge` explicitly,
989 using the fact that the labels are worktree-local refs (the ref
990 `refs/rewritten/onto` would correspond to the label `onto`, for example).
992 Note: the first command (`label onto`) labels the revision onto which
993 the commits are rebased; The name `onto` is just a convention, as a nod
994 to the `--onto` option.
996 It is also possible to introduce completely new merge commits from scratch
997 by adding a command of the form `merge <merge-head>`. This form will
998 generate a tentative commit message and always open an editor to let the
999 user edit it. This can be useful e.g. when a topic branch turns out to
1000 address more than a single concern and wants to be split into two or
1001 even more topic branches. Consider this todo list:
1004 pick 192837 Switch from GNU Makefiles to CMake
1005 pick 5a6c7e Document the switch to CMake
1006 pick 918273 Fix detection of OpenSSL in CMake
1007 pick afbecd http: add support for TLS v1.3
1008 pick fdbaec Fix detection of cURL in CMake on Windows
1011 The one commit in this list that is not related to CMake may very well
1012 have been motivated by working on fixing all those bugs introduced by
1013 switching to CMake, but it addresses a different concern. To split this
1014 branch into two topic branches, the todo list could be edited like this:
1019 pick afbecd http: add support for TLS v1.3
1023 pick 192837 Switch from GNU Makefiles to CMake
1024 pick 918273 Fix detection of OpenSSL in CMake
1025 pick fdbaec Fix detection of cURL in CMake on Windows
1026 pick 5a6c7e Document the switch to CMake
1036 The todo list presented by `--preserve-merges --interactive` does not
1037 represent the topology of the revision graph. Editing commits and
1038 rewording their commit messages should work fine, but attempts to
1039 reorder commits tend to produce counterintuitive results. Use
1040 `--rebase-merges` in such scenarios instead.
1042 For example, an attempt to rearrange
1044 1 --- 2 --- 3 --- 4 --- 5
1048 1 --- 2 --- 4 --- 3 --- 5
1050 by moving the "pick 4" line will result in the following history:
1059 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite