Git Rebase Tutorial

Beginners of Git are warned against the rebase command. And rightfully so. With all the new things to learn, beginners are probably better off mastering the basic concepts before delving into the intricacies of rebasing. However, if you understand the basics of merging branches, then knowing how to rebase can help you solve some complicated development puzzles when the right time comes.

Git Rebase: Definitions

According to the git documentation, the rebase command will reapply commits on top of another base tip. This definition might be a little daunting. It’s easier to explain rebase as a procedure that adds the changes of the current branch to the tail of another branch. Let’s walk through an example to get a better idea of what happens.

Git Rebasing Example

In this example, we will first create a test case with ‘master’ and ‘feature’ branch. Then we will do a standard merge. Next, we will recreate the test case and perform rebase and merge.

1. Creating Master and Feature Branches

Here is the scenario we will create:

  A — B — C (master)               E — F (feature)

In the above example, we are taking the following path:

Commit A: we add a.txt file in the ‘master’ branch

Commit B: we add b.txt file in the ‘master’ branch

At this stage, we create the branch ‘feature’ which means it will have a.txt and b.txt

Commit C: we add c.txt file in the ‘master’ branch

We go to the ‘feature’ branch

Commit E: we modify a.txt in ‘feature’ branch

Commit F: we modify b.txt in ‘feature’ branch

You can create a folder and run the following code inside the folder to create the above situation:

  git init  touch a.txt  git add -A  git commit -m "Commit A: added a.txt"    touch b.txt  git add -A  git commit -m "Commit B: added b.txt"  git branch feature    touch c.txt  git add -A  git commit -m "Commit C: added c.txt"  git status  git checkout feature    echo aaa > a.txt  git add -A  git commit -m "Commit E: modified a.txt"    echo bbb > b.txt  git add -A  git commit -m "Commit F: modified b.txt"

2. Simple Merge

Let’s use the log command to check both branches.

Results for ‘master’:

  $ git checkout master  Switched to branch 'master'    $ git log --oneline  2bbde47 Commit C: added c.txt  b430ab5 Commit B: added b.txt  6f30e95 Commit A: added a.txt    $ ls  a.txt    b.txt    c.txt

Results for ‘feature’:

  $ git checkout feature  Switched to branch 'feature'    $ git log --oneline  0286690 Commit F: modified b.txt  7c5c85e Commit E: modified a.txt  b430ab5 Commit B: added b.txt  6f30e95 Commit A: added a.txt    $ ls  a.txt    b.txt

Notice how the feature branch does not have Commit C

Now let’s run merge ‘feature’ branch with ‘master’ branch. You will be asked to enter a comment. In the comment, add “Commit G:” at the beginning to make it easier to track.

  $ git checkout master  Switched to branch 'master'    $ git merge feature  Merge made by the 'recursive' strategy.  a.txt | 1 +  b.txt | 1 +  2 files changed, 2 insertions(+)

Results for ‘master’:

   $ git checkout master   Already on 'master'    $ git log --oneline   d086ff9 Commit G: Merge branch 'feature'   0286690 Commit F: modified b.txt   7c5c85e Commit E: modified a.txt   2bbde47 Commit C: added c.txt   b430ab5 Commit B: added b.txt   6f30e95 Commit A: added a.txt     $ ls   a.txt b.txt c.txt

Results for ‘feature’:

  $ git checkout feature  Switched to branch 'feature'    $ git log --oneline  0286690 Commit F: modified b.txt  7c5c85e Commit E: modified a.txt  b430ab5 Commit B: added b.txt  6f30e95 Commit A: added a.txt    $ ls  a.txt    b.txt

In the ‘master’ branch, you will notice there is a new commit G that has merged the changes from ‘feature’ branch. Basically, the following action has taken place:

  A — B — C  — G (master)            /        E — F (feature)

In the Commit G, all the changes from ‘feature’ branch have been brought into the master branch. But the ‘feature’ branch itself has remained untouched due to the merge process. Notice the hash of each commit. After the merge, E (7c5c85e) and F (0286690) commit has the same hash on the ‘feature’ and ‘master’ branch.

3. Merging with Rebasing

Let’s repeat step 1 to create the ‘master’ and ‘feature’ branches again.

Results for ‘master’:

  $ git checkout master  Switched to branch 'master'    $ git log --oneline  7f573d8 Commit C: added c.txt  795da3c Commit B: added b.txt  0f4ed5b Commit A: added a.txt    $ ls  a.txt    b.txt    c.txt

Results for ‘feature’:

  $ git checkout feature  Switched to branch 'feature'    $ git log --oneline  8ed0c4e Commit F: modified b.txt  6e12b57 Commit E: modified a.txt  795da3c Commit B: added b.txt  0f4ed5b Commit A: added a.txt    $ ls  a.txt b.txt

Let’s rebase from the ‘feature’ branch.

  $ git checkout feature  Switched to branch 'feature'    $ git rebase master  First, rewinding head to replay your work on top of it...  Applying: Commit E: modified a.txt  Applying: Commit F: modified b.txt

Then merge ‘feature’ into ‘master’.

  $ git checkout master  Switched to branch 'master'    $ git merge feature  Updating 7f573d8..9efa1a3  Fast-forward   a.txt | 1 +   b.txt | 1 +   2 files changed, 2 insertions(+)

Results for ‘master’ branch:

  $ git checkout master  Already on 'master'    $ git log --oneline  9efa1a3 Commit F: modified b.txt  8710174 Commit E: modified a.txt  7f573d8 Commit C: added c.txt  795da3c Commit B: added b.txt  0f4ed5b Commit A: added a.txt    $ ls  a.txt    b.txt    c.txt

Results for ‘feature’ branch:

  $ git checkout feature  Switched to branch 'feature'    $ git log --oneline  9efa1a3 Commit F: modified b.txt  8710174 Commit E: modified a.txt  7f573d8 Commit C: added c.txt  795da3c Commit B: added b.txt  0f4ed5b Commit A: added a.txt    $ ls  a.txt    b.txt    c.txt

Notice that after the rebase and merge both branches are the same. Also, the hashes for E and F have changed in both branches. Basically, in the rebase scenario, this is what happened:

  A — B — C                       E’ — F’ (feature, master)

That’s why there is no new commit. The E and F commits have been recalculated and latched to the end of the ‘master’ branch.

Rebasing is a useful tool when you want to clean up the history of your work. However, there is a danger which has given birth to the golden rule.

Golden Rule of Rebasing

The golden rule of rebasing is :

Never rebase a public branch.

As you can see from the example above, rebasing recalculates the commits. When multiple people are branching from a public repository, rebasing can create situations where developers who have created new branches will run into very complicated merge situations. So, it’s a good idea never to rebase public branches that are shared.