rebase-safely

Rebase Safely

Master Git rebase without losing work or causing team chaos.

When to Use

• Updating feature branch with latest main
• Cleaning up commit history before PR
• Squashing multiple commits into one
• Reordering or editing commits
• Fixing commit messages

The Golden Rule

NEVER rebase commits that have been pushed to a shared branch.

Rebasing rewrites history. If others have based work on those commits, you'll cause merge conflicts and confusion.

Safe to rebase:
✓ Local commits not yet pushed
✓ Your own feature branch (not yet merged)
✓ Commits only you have seen

NOT safe to rebase:
✗ main/develop branch
✗ Shared feature branches
✗ Already merged commits

Basic Rebase Operations

Update Feature Branch with Main

# Fetch latest
git fetch origin

# Rebase onto main
git checkout feature-branch
git rebase origin/main

# If conflicts, resolve then:
git add <resolved-files>
git rebase --continue

# Force push YOUR branch only
git push --force-with-lease

Interactive Rebase - Clean Up History

# Rebase last 3 commits
git rebase -i HEAD~3

# Rebase from where branch diverged
git rebase -i main

Interactive rebase commands:

pick   = use commit as-is
reword = use commit, but edit message
edit   = use commit, but stop to amend
squash = meld into previous commit (keep message)
fixup  = meld into previous commit (discard message)
drop   = remove commit entirely

Common Scenarios

1. Squash Multiple Commits

Before:

abc123 fix: typo in login
def456 fix: another typo
ghi789 feat: add login page

git rebase -i HEAD~3

Change to:

pick ghi789 feat: add login page
squash def456 fix: another typo
squash abc123 fix: typo in login

Result: One clean commit with combined message.

2. Reorder Commits

git rebase -i HEAD~3

Just change the order of pick lines:

pick ghi789 third commit
pick abc123 first commit  # moved down
pick def456 second commit # moved down