Raw
1 git-rebase(1)
2 =============
3
4 NAME
5 ----
6 git-rebase - Reapply commits on top of another base tip
7
8 SYNOPSIS
9 --------
10 [verse]
11 'git rebase' [-i | --interactive] [<options>] [--exec <cmd>]
12 [--onto <newbase> | --keep-base] [<upstream> [<branch>]]
13 'git rebase' [-i | --interactive] [<options>] [--exec <cmd>] [--onto <newbase>]
14 --root [<branch>]
15 'git rebase' (--continue|--skip|--abort|--quit|--edit-todo|--show-current-patch)
16
17 DESCRIPTION
18 -----------
19 Transplant a series of commits onto a different starting point.
20 You can also use `git rebase` to reorder or combine commits: see INTERACTIVE
21 MODE below for how to do that.
22
23 For example, imagine that you have been working on the `topic` branch in this
24 history, and you want to "catch up" to the work done on the `master` branch.
25
26 ------------
27 A---B---C topic
28 /
29 D---E---F---G master
30 ------------
31
32 You want to transplant the commits you made on `topic` since it diverged from
33 `master` (i.e. A, B, and C), on top of the current `master`. You can do this
34 by running `git rebase master` while the `topic` branch is checked out. If you
35 want to rebase `topic` while on another branch, `git rebase master topic` is a
36 shortcut for `git checkout topic && git rebase master`.
37
38 ------------
39 A'--B'--C' topic
40 /
41 D---E---F---G master
42 ------------
43
44
45 If there is a merge conflict during this process, `git rebase` will stop at the
46 first problematic commit and leave conflict markers. If this happens, you can do
47 one of these things:
48
49 1. Resolve the conflict. You can use `git diff` to find the markers (<<<<<<)
50 and make edits to resolve the conflict. For each file you edit, you need to
51 tell Git that the conflict has been resolved. You can mark the conflict as
52 resolved with `git add <filename>`. After resolving all of the conflicts,
53 you can continue the rebasing process with
54
55 git rebase --continue
56
57 2. Stop the `git rebase` and return your branch to its original state with
58
59 git rebase --abort
60
61 3. Skip the commit that caused the merge conflict with
62
63 git rebase --skip
64
65 If you don't specify an `<upstream>` to rebase onto, the upstream configured in
66 `branch.<name>.remote` and `branch.<name>.merge` options will be used (see
67 linkgit:git-config[1] for details) and the `--fork-point` option is
68 assumed. If you are currently not on any branch or if the current
69 branch does not have a configured upstream, the rebase will abort.
70
71 Here is a simplified description of what `git rebase <upstream>` does:
72
73 1. Make a list of all commits on your current branch since it branched
74 off from `<upstream>` that do not have an equivalent commit in
75 `<upstream>`.
76 2. Check out `<upstream>` with the equivalent of
77 `git checkout --detach <upstream>`.
78 3. Replay the commits, one by one, in order. This is similar to running
79 `git cherry-pick <commit>` for each commit. See REBASING MERGES for how merges
80 are handled.
81 4. Update your branch to point to the final commit with the equivalent
82 of `git checkout -B <branch>`.
83
84 [NOTE]
85 When starting the rebase, `ORIG_HEAD` is set to point to the commit at the tip
86 of the to-be-rebased branch. However, `ORIG_HEAD` is not guaranteed to still
87 point to that commit at the end of the rebase if other commands that change
88 `ORIG_HEAD` (like `git reset`) are used during the rebase. The previous branch
89 tip, however, is accessible using the reflog of the current branch (i.e. `@{1}`,
90 see linkgit:gitrevisions[7]).
91
92 TRANSPLANTING A TOPIC BRANCH WITH --ONTO
93 ----------------------------------------
94
95 Here is how you would transplant a topic branch based on one
96 branch to another, to pretend that you forked the topic branch
97 from the latter branch, using `rebase --onto`.
98
99 First let's assume your 'topic' is based on branch 'next'.
100 For example, a feature developed in 'topic' depends on some
101 functionality which is found in 'next'.
102
103 ------------
104 o---o---o---o---o master
105 \
106 o---o---o---o---o next
107 \
108 o---o---o topic
109 ------------
110
111 We want to make 'topic' forked from branch 'master'; for example,
112 because the functionality on which 'topic' depends was merged into the
113 more stable 'master' branch. We want our tree to look like this:
114
115 ------------
116 o---o---o---o---o master
117 | \
118 | o'--o'--o' topic
119 \
120 o---o---o---o---o next
121 ------------
122
123 We can get this using the following command:
124
125 git rebase --onto master next topic
126
127
128 Another example of --onto option is to rebase part of a
129 branch. If we have the following situation:
130
131 ------------
132 H---I---J topicB
133 /
134 E---F---G topicA
135 /
136 A---B---C---D master
137 ------------
138
139 then the command
140
141 git rebase --onto master topicA topicB
142
143 would result in:
144
145 ------------
146 H'--I'--J' topicB
147 /
148 | E---F---G topicA
149 |/
150 A---B---C---D master
151 ------------
152
153 This is useful when topicB does not depend on topicA.
154
155 A range of commits could also be removed with rebase. If we have
156 the following situation:
157
158 ------------
159 E---F---G---H---I---J topicA
160 ------------
161
162 then the command
163
164 git rebase --onto topicA~5 topicA~3 topicA
165
166 would result in the removal of commits F and G:
167
168 ------------
169 E---H'---I'---J' topicA
170 ------------
171
172 This is useful if F and G were flawed in some way, or should not be
173 part of topicA. Note that the argument to `--onto` and the `<upstream>`
174 parameter can be any valid commit-ish.
175
176 MODE OPTIONS
177 ------------
178
179 The options in this section cannot be used with any other option,
180 including not with each other:
181
182 --continue::
183 Restart the rebasing process after having resolved a merge conflict.
184 +
185 -e::
186 --edit::
187 --no-edit::
188 With `--continue`, edit or do not edit the commit message,
189 respectively. By default, the configured $EDITOR is opened so you
190 can update the commit message after resolving conflicts.
191 `--no-edit` reuses the existing message without launching an
192 editor. The `rebase.noEdit` configuration variable can be used to
193 enable `--no-edit` by default; `--edit` overrides that setting.
194
195 --skip::
196 Restart the rebasing process by skipping the current patch.
197
198 --abort::
199 Abort the rebase operation and reset HEAD to the original
200 branch. If `<branch>` was provided when the rebase operation was
201 started, then `HEAD` will be reset to `<branch>`. Otherwise `HEAD`
202 will be reset to where it was when the rebase operation was
203 started.
204
205 --quit::
206 Abort the rebase operation but `HEAD` is not reset back to the
207 original branch. The index and working tree are also left
208 unchanged as a result. If a temporary stash entry was created
209 using `--autostash`, it will be saved to the stash list.
210
211 --edit-todo::
212 Edit the todo list during an interactive rebase.
213
214 --show-current-patch::
215 Show the current patch in an interactive rebase or when rebase
216 is stopped because of conflicts. This is the equivalent of
217 `git show REBASE_HEAD`.
218
219 OPTIONS
220 -------
221 --onto <newbase>::
222 Starting point at which to create the new commits. If the
223 `--onto` option is not specified, the starting point is
224 `<upstream>`. May be any valid commit, and not just an
225 existing branch name.
226 +
227 As a special case, you may use "A\...B" as a shortcut for the
228 merge base of A and B if there is exactly one merge base. You can
229 leave out at most one of A and B, in which case it defaults to HEAD.
230
231 See TRANSPLANTING A TOPIC BRANCH WITH --ONTO above for examples.
232
233 --keep-base::
234 Set the starting point at which to create the new commits to the
235 merge base of `<upstream>` and `<branch>`. Running
236 `git rebase --keep-base <upstream> <branch>` is equivalent to
237 running
238 `git rebase --reapply-cherry-picks --no-fork-point --onto <upstream>...<branch> <upstream> <branch>`.
239 +
240 This option is useful in the case where one is developing a feature on
241 top of an upstream branch. While the feature is being worked on, the
242 upstream branch may advance and it may not be the best idea to keep
243 rebasing on top of the upstream but to keep the base commit as-is. As
244 the base commit is unchanged this option implies `--reapply-cherry-picks`
245 to avoid losing commits.
246 +
247 Although both this option and `--fork-point` find the merge base between
248 `<upstream>` and `<branch>`, this option uses the merge base as the _starting
249 point_ on which new commits will be created, whereas `--fork-point` uses
250 the merge base to determine the _set of commits_ which will be rebased.
251 +
252 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
253
254 <upstream>::
255 Upstream branch to compare against. May be any valid commit,
256 not just an existing branch name. Defaults to the configured
257 upstream for the current branch.
258
259 <branch>::
260 Working branch; defaults to `HEAD`.
261
262 --apply::
263 Use applying strategies to rebase (calling `git-am`
264 internally). This option may become a no-op in the future
265 once the merge backend handles everything the apply one does.
266 +
267 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
268
269 --empty=(drop|keep|stop)::
270 How to handle commits that are not empty to start and are not
271 clean cherry-picks of any upstream commit, but which become
272 empty after rebasing (because they contain a subset of already
273 upstream changes):
274 +
275 --
276 `drop`;;
277 The commit will be dropped. This is the default behavior.
278 `keep`;;
279 The commit will be kept. This option is implied when `--exec` is
280 specified unless `-i`/`--interactive` is also specified.
281 `stop`;;
282 `ask`;;
283 The rebase will halt when the commit is applied, allowing you to
284 choose whether to drop it, edit files more, or just commit the empty
285 changes. This option is implied when `-i`/`--interactive` is
286 specified. `ask` is a deprecated synonym of `stop`.
287 --
288 +
289 Note that commits which start empty are kept (unless `--no-keep-empty`
290 is specified), and commits which are clean cherry-picks (as determined
291 by `git log --cherry-mark ...`) are detected and dropped as a
292 preliminary step (unless `--reapply-cherry-picks` or `--keep-base` is
293 passed).
294 +
295 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
296
297 --no-keep-empty::
298 --keep-empty::
299 Do not keep commits that start empty before the rebase
300 (i.e. that do not change anything from its parent) in the
301 result. The default is to keep commits which start empty,
302 since creating such commits requires passing the `--allow-empty`
303 override flag to `git commit`, signifying that a user is very
304 intentionally creating such a commit and thus wants to keep
305 it.
306 +
307 Usage of this flag will probably be rare, since you can get rid of
308 commits that start empty by just firing up an interactive rebase and
309 removing the lines corresponding to the commits you don't want. This
310 flag exists as a convenient shortcut, such as for cases where external
311 tools generate many empty commits and you want them all removed.
312 +
313 For commits which do not start empty but become empty after rebasing,
314 see the `--empty` flag.
315 +
316 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
317
318 --reapply-cherry-picks::
319 --no-reapply-cherry-picks::
320 Reapply all clean cherry-picks of any upstream commit instead
321 of preemptively dropping them. (If these commits then become
322 empty after rebasing, because they contain a subset of already
323 upstream changes, the behavior towards them is controlled by
324 the `--empty` flag.)
325 +
326 In the absence of `--keep-base` (or if `--no-reapply-cherry-picks` is
327 given), these commits will be automatically dropped. Because this
328 necessitates reading all upstream commits, this can be expensive in
329 repositories with a large number of upstream commits that need to be
330 read. When using the 'merge' backend, warnings will be issued for each
331 dropped commit (unless `--quiet` is given). Advice will also be issued
332 unless `advice.skippedCherryPicks` is set to false (see
333 linkgit:git-config[1]).
334 +
335 `--reapply-cherry-picks` allows rebase to forgo reading all upstream
336 commits, potentially improving performance.
337 +
338 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
339
340 --allow-empty-message::
341 No-op. Rebasing commits with an empty message used to fail
342 and this option would override that behavior, allowing commits
343 with empty messages to be rebased. Now commits with an empty
344 message do not cause rebasing to halt.
345 +
346 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
347
348 -m::
349 --merge::
350 Using merging strategies to rebase (default).
351 +
352 Note that a rebase merge works by replaying each commit from the working
353 branch on top of the `<upstream>` branch. Because of this, when a merge
354 conflict happens, the side reported as 'ours' is the so-far rebased
355 series, starting with `<upstream>`, and 'theirs' is the working branch.
356 In other words, the sides are swapped.
357 +
358 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
359
360 -s <strategy>::
361 --strategy=<strategy>::
362 Use the given merge strategy, instead of the default `ort`.
363 This implies `--merge`.
364 +
365 Because `git rebase` replays each commit from the working branch
366 on top of the `<upstream>` branch using the given strategy, using
367 the `ours` strategy simply empties all patches from the `<branch>`,
368 which makes little sense.
369 +
370 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
371
372 -X <strategy-option>::
373 --strategy-option=<strategy-option>::
374 Pass the <strategy-option> through to the merge strategy.
375 This implies `--merge` and, if no strategy has been
376 specified, `-s ort`. Note the reversal of 'ours' and
377 'theirs' as noted above for the `-m` option.
378 +
379 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
380
381 include::rerere-options.adoc[]
382
383 -S[<keyid>]::
384 --gpg-sign[=<keyid>]::
385 --no-gpg-sign::
386 GPG-sign commits. The `keyid` argument is optional and
387 defaults to the committer identity; if specified, it must be
388 stuck to the option without a space. `--no-gpg-sign` is useful to
389 countermand both `commit.gpgSign` configuration variable, and
390 earlier `--gpg-sign`.
391
392 -q::
393 --quiet::
394 Be quiet. Implies `--no-stat`.
395
396 -v::
397 --verbose::
398 Be verbose. Implies `--stat`.
399
400 --stat::
401 Show a diffstat of what changed upstream since the last rebase. The
402 diffstat is also controlled by the configuration option rebase.stat.
403
404 -n::
405 --no-stat::
406 Do not show a diffstat as part of the rebase process.
407
408 --no-verify::
409 This option bypasses the pre-rebase hook. See also linkgit:githooks[5].
410
411 --verify::
412 Allows the pre-rebase hook to run, which is the default. This option can
413 be used to override `--no-verify`. See also linkgit:githooks[5].
414
415 -C<n>::
416 Ensure at least `<n>` lines of surrounding context match before
417 and after each change. When fewer lines of surrounding
418 context exist they all must match. By default no context is
419 ever ignored. Implies `--apply`.
420 +
421 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
422
423 --no-ff::
424 --force-rebase::
425 -f::
426 Individually replay all rebased commits instead of fast-forwarding
427 over the unchanged ones. This ensures that the entire history of
428 the rebased branch is composed of new commits.
429 +
430 You may find this helpful after reverting a topic branch merge, as this option
431 recreates the topic branch with fresh commits so it can be remerged
432 successfully without needing to "revert the reversion" (see the
433 link:howto/revert-a-faulty-merge.html[revert-a-faulty-merge How-To] for
434 details).
435
436 --fork-point::
437 --no-fork-point::
438 Use reflog to find a better common ancestor between `<upstream>`
439 and `<branch>` when calculating which commits have been
440 introduced by `<branch>`.
441 +
442 When `--fork-point` is active, 'fork_point' will be used instead of
443 `<upstream>` to calculate the set of commits to rebase, where
444 'fork_point' is the result of `git merge-base --fork-point <upstream>
445 <branch>` command (see linkgit:git-merge-base[1]). If 'fork_point'
446 ends up being empty, the `<upstream>` will be used as a fallback.
447 +
448 If `<upstream>` or `--keep-base` is given on the command line, then
449 the default is `--no-fork-point`, otherwise the default is
450 `--fork-point`. See also `rebase.forkpoint` in linkgit:git-config[1].
451 +
452 If your branch was based on `<upstream>` but `<upstream>` was rewound and
453 your branch contains commits which were dropped, this option can be used
454 with `--keep-base` in order to drop those commits from your branch.
455 +
456 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
457
458 --ignore-whitespace::
459 Ignore whitespace differences when trying to reconcile
460 differences. Currently, each backend implements an approximation of
461 this behavior:
462 +
463 apply backend;;
464 When applying a patch, ignore changes in whitespace in context
465 lines. Unfortunately, this means that if the "old" lines being
466 replaced by the patch differ only in whitespace from the existing
467 file, you will get a merge conflict instead of a successful patch
468 application.
469 +
470 merge backend;;
471 Treat lines with only whitespace changes as unchanged when merging.
472 Unfortunately, this means that any patch hunks that were intended
473 to modify whitespace and nothing else will be dropped, even if the
474 other side had no changes that conflicted.
475
476 --whitespace=<option>::
477 This flag is passed to the `git apply` program
478 (see linkgit:git-apply[1]) that applies the patch.
479 Implies `--apply`.
480 +
481 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
482
483 --committer-date-is-author-date::
484 Instead of using the current time as the committer date, use
485 the author date of the commit being rebased as the committer
486 date. This option implies `--force-rebase`.
487 +
488 WARNING: The history walking machinery assumes that commits have
489 non-decreasing commit timestamps. You should consider if you really need
490 to use this option. Then you should only use this option to override the
491 committer date when rebasing commits on top of a base which commit is
492 older (in terms of the commit date) than the oldest commit you are
493 applying (in terms of the author date).
494
495 --ignore-date::
496 --reset-author-date::
497 Instead of using the author date of the original commit, use
498 the current time as the author date of the rebased commit. This
499 option implies `--force-rebase`.
500 +
501 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
502
503 --signoff::
504 Add a `Signed-off-by` trailer to all the rebased commits. Note
505 that if `--interactive` is given then only commits marked to be
506 picked, edited or reworded will have the trailer added.
507 +
508 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
509
510 --trailer=<trailer>::
511 Append the given trailer to every rebased commit message, processed
512 via linkgit:git-interpret-trailers[1]. This option implies
513 `--force-rebase`.
514 +
515 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
516
517 -i::
518 --interactive::
519 Make a list of the commits which are about to be rebased. Let the
520 user edit that list before rebasing. This mode can also be used to
521 split commits (see SPLITTING COMMITS below).
522 +
523 The commit list format can be changed by setting the configuration option
524 rebase.instructionFormat. A customized instruction format will automatically
525 have the commit hash prepended to the format.
526 +
527 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
528
529 -r::
530 --rebase-merges[=(rebase-cousins|no-rebase-cousins)]::
531 --no-rebase-merges::
532 By default, a rebase will simply drop merge commits from the todo
533 list, and put the rebased commits into a single, linear branch.
534 With `--rebase-merges`, the rebase will instead try to preserve
535 the branching structure within the commits that are to be rebased,
536 by recreating the merge commits. Any resolved merge conflicts or
537 manual amendments in these merge commits will have to be
538 resolved/re-applied manually. `--no-rebase-merges` can be used to
539 countermand both the `rebase.rebaseMerges` config option and a previous
540 `--rebase-merges`.
541 +
542 When rebasing merges, there are two modes: `rebase-cousins` and
543 `no-rebase-cousins`. If the mode is not specified, it defaults to
544 `no-rebase-cousins`. In `no-rebase-cousins` mode, commits which do not have
545 `<upstream>` as direct ancestor will keep their original branch point, i.e.
546 commits that would be excluded by linkgit:git-log[1]'s `--ancestry-path`
547 option will keep their original ancestry by default. In `rebase-cousins` mode,
548 such commits are instead rebased onto `<upstream>` (or `<onto>`, if
549 specified).
550 +
551 It is currently only possible to recreate the merge commits using the
552 `ort` merge strategy; different merge strategies can be used only via
553 explicit `exec git merge -s <strategy> [...]` commands.
554 +
555 See also REBASING MERGES and INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
556
557 -x <cmd>::
558 --exec <cmd>::
559 Append "exec <cmd>" after each line creating a commit in the
560 final history. `<cmd>` will be interpreted as one or more shell
561 commands. Any command that fails will interrupt the rebase,
562 with exit code 1.
563 +
564 You may execute several commands by either using one instance of `--exec`
565 with several commands:
566 +
567 git rebase -i --exec "cmd1 && cmd2 && ..."
568 +
569 or by giving more than one `--exec`:
570 +
571 git rebase -i --exec "cmd1" --exec "cmd2" --exec ...
572 +
573 If `--autosquash` is used, `exec` lines will not be appended for
574 the intermediate commits, and will only appear at the end of each
575 squash/fixup series.
576 +
577 This uses the `--interactive` machinery internally, but it can be run
578 without an explicit `--interactive`.
579 +
580 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
581
582 --root::
583 Rebase all commits reachable from `<branch>`, instead of
584 limiting them with an `<upstream>`. This allows you to rebase
585 the root commit(s) on a branch.
586 +
587 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
588
589 --autosquash::
590 --no-autosquash::
591 Automatically squash commits with specially formatted messages into
592 previous commits being rebased. If a commit message starts with
593 "squash! ", "fixup! " or "amend! ", the remainder of the title
594 is taken as a commit specifier, which matches a previous commit if it
595 matches the title or the hash of that commit. If no commit
596 matches fully, matches of the specifier with the start of commit
597 titles are considered.
598 +
599 In the rebase todo list, the actions of squash, fixup and amend commits are
600 changed from `pick` to `squash`, `fixup` or `fixup -C`, respectively, and they
601 are moved right after the commit they modify. The `--interactive` option can
602 be used to review and edit the todo list before proceeding.
603 +
604 The recommended way to create commits with squash markers is by using the
605 `--squash`, `--fixup`, `--fixup=amend:` or `--fixup=reword:` options of
606 linkgit:git-commit[1], which take the target commit as an argument and
607 automatically fill in the title of the new commit from that.
608 +
609 Setting configuration variable `rebase.autoSquash` to true enables
610 auto-squashing by default for interactive rebase. The `--no-autosquash`
611 option can be used to override that setting.
612 +
613 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
614
615 --autostash::
616 --no-autostash::
617 Automatically create a temporary stash entry before the operation
618 begins, and apply it after the operation ends. This means
619 that you can run rebase on a dirty worktree. However, use
620 with care: the final stash application after a successful
621 rebase might result in non-trivial conflicts.
622
623 --reschedule-failed-exec::
624 --no-reschedule-failed-exec::
625 Automatically reschedule `exec` commands that failed. This only makes
626 sense in interactive mode (or when an `--exec` option was provided).
627 +
628 This option applies once a rebase is started. It is preserved for the whole
629 rebase based on, in order, the command line option provided to the initial `git
630 rebase`, the `rebase.rescheduleFailedExec` configuration (see
631 linkgit:git-config[1] or "CONFIGURATION" below), or it defaults to false.
632 +
633 Recording this option for the whole rebase is a convenience feature. Otherwise
634 an explicit `--no-reschedule-failed-exec` at the start would be overridden by
635 the presence of a `rebase.rescheduleFailedExec=true` configuration when `git
636 rebase --continue` is invoked. Currently, you cannot pass
637 `--[no-]reschedule-failed-exec` to `git rebase --continue`.
638
639 --update-refs::
640 --no-update-refs::
641 Automatically force-update any branches that point to commits that
642 are being rebased. Any branches that are checked out in a worktree
643 are not updated in this way.
644 +
645 If the configuration variable `rebase.updateRefs` is set, then this option
646 can be used to override and disable this setting.
647 +
648 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
649
650 INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS
651 --------------------
652
653 The following options:
654
655 * --apply
656 * --whitespace
657 * -C
658
659 are incompatible with the following options:
660
661 * --merge
662 * --strategy
663 * --strategy-option
664 * --autosquash
665 * --rebase-merges
666 * --interactive
667 * --exec
668 * --no-keep-empty
669 * --empty=
670 * --[no-]reapply-cherry-picks when used without --keep-base
671 * --update-refs
672 * --root when used without --onto
673 * --trailer
674
675 In addition, the following pairs of options are incompatible:
676
677 * --keep-base and --onto
678 * --keep-base and --root
679 * --fork-point and --root
680
681 BEHAVIORAL DIFFERENCES
682 ----------------------
683
684 `git rebase` has two primary backends: 'apply' and 'merge'. (The 'apply'
685 backend used to be known as the 'am' backend, but the name led to
686 confusion as it looks like a verb instead of a noun. Also, the 'merge'
687 backend used to be known as the interactive backend, but it is now
688 used for non-interactive cases as well. Both were renamed based on
689 lower-level functionality that underpinned each.) There are some
690 subtle differences in how these two backends behave:
691
692 Empty commits
693 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
694
695 The 'apply' backend unfortunately drops intentionally empty commits, i.e.
696 commits that started empty, though these are rare in practice. It
697 also drops commits that become empty and has no option for controlling
698 this behavior.
699
700 The 'merge' backend keeps intentionally empty commits by default (though
701 with `-i` they are marked as empty in the todo list editor, or they can
702 be dropped automatically with `--no-keep-empty`).
703
704 Similar to the apply backend, by default the merge backend drops
705 commits that become empty unless `-i`/`--interactive` is specified (in
706 which case it stops and asks the user what to do). The merge backend
707 also has an `--empty=(drop|keep|stop)` option for changing the behavior
708 of handling commits that become empty.
709
710 Directory rename detection
711 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
712
713 Due to the lack of accurate tree information (arising from
714 constructing fake ancestors with the limited information available in
715 patches), directory rename detection is disabled in the 'apply' backend.
716 Disabled directory rename detection means that if one side of history
717 renames a directory and the other adds new files to the old directory,
718 then the new files will be left behind in the old directory without
719 any warning at the time of rebasing that you may want to move these
720 files into the new directory.
721
722 Directory rename detection works with the 'merge' backend to provide you
723 warnings in such cases.
724
725 Context
726 ~~~~~~~
727
728 The 'apply' backend works by creating a sequence of patches (by calling
729 `format-patch` internally), and then applying the patches in sequence
730 (calling `am` internally). Patches are composed of multiple hunks,
731 each with line numbers, a context region, and the actual changes. The
732 line numbers have to be taken with some offset, since the other side
733 will likely have inserted or deleted lines earlier in the file. The
734 context region is meant to help find how to adjust the line numbers in
735 order to apply the changes to the right lines. However, if multiple
736 areas of the code have the same surrounding lines of context, the
737 wrong one can be picked. There are real-world cases where this has
738 caused commits to be reapplied incorrectly with no conflicts reported.
739 Setting `diff.context` to a larger value may prevent such types of
740 problems, but increases the chance of spurious conflicts (since it
741 will require more lines of matching context to apply).
742
743 The 'merge' backend works with a full copy of each relevant file,
744 insulating it from these types of problems.
745
746 Labelling of conflicts markers
747 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
748
749 When there are content conflicts, the merge machinery tries to
750 annotate each side's conflict markers with the commits where the
751 content came from. Since the 'apply' backend drops the original
752 information about the rebased commits and their parents (and instead
753 generates new fake commits based off limited information in the
754 generated patches), those commits cannot be identified; instead it has
755 to fall back to a commit summary. Also, when `merge.conflictStyle` is
756 set to `diff3` or `zdiff3`, the 'apply' backend will use "constructed merge
757 base" to label the content from the merge base, and thus provide no
758 information about the merge base commit whatsoever.
759
760 The 'merge' backend works with the full commits on both sides of history
761 and thus has no such limitations.
762
763 Hooks
764 ~~~~~
765
766 The 'apply' backend has not traditionally called the post-commit hook,
767 while the 'merge' backend has. Both have called the post-checkout hook,
768 though the 'merge' backend has squelched its output. Further, both
769 backends only call the post-checkout hook with the starting point
770 commit of the rebase, not the intermediate commits nor the final
771 commit. In each case, the calling of these hooks was by accident of
772 implementation rather than by design (both backends were originally
773 implemented as shell scripts and happened to invoke other commands
774 like `git checkout` or `git commit` that would call the hooks). Both
775 backends should have the same behavior, though it is not entirely
776 clear which, if any, is correct. We will likely make rebase stop
777 calling either of these hooks in the future.
778
779 Interruptability
780 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
781
782 The 'apply' backend has safety problems with an ill-timed interrupt; if
783 the user presses Ctrl-C at the wrong time to try to abort the rebase,
784 the rebase can enter a state where it cannot be aborted with a
785 subsequent `git rebase --abort`. The 'merge' backend does not appear to
786 suffer from the same shortcoming. (See
787 https://lore.kernel.org/git/20200207132152.GC2868@szeder.dev/ for
788 details.)
789
790 Commit Rewording
791 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
792
793 When a conflict occurs while rebasing, rebase stops and asks the user
794 to resolve. Since the user may need to make notable changes while
795 resolving conflicts, after conflicts are resolved and the user has run
796 `git rebase --continue`, the rebase opens an editor and asks the
797 user to update the commit message, unless `rebase.noEdit` is set or
798 `--no-edit` is passed to `--continue`. The 'merge' backend does this,
799 while the 'apply' backend blindly applies the original commit message.
800
801 Miscellaneous differences
802 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
803
804 There are a few more behavioral differences that most folks would
805 probably consider inconsequential but which are mentioned for
806 completeness:
807
808 * Reflog: The two backends will use different wording when describing
809 the changes made in the reflog, though both will make use of the
810 word "rebase".
811
812 * Progress, informational, and error messages: The two backends
813 provide slightly different progress and informational messages.
814 Also, the apply backend writes error messages (such as "Your files
815 would be overwritten...") to stdout, while the merge backend writes
816 them to stderr.
817
818 * State directories: The two backends keep their state in different
819 directories under `.git/`
820
821 include::merge-strategies.adoc[]
822
823 NOTES
824 -----
825
826 You should understand the implications of using `git rebase` on a
827 repository that you share. See also RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
828 below.
829
830 When the rebase is run, it will first execute a `pre-rebase` hook if one
831 exists. You can use this hook to do sanity checks and reject the rebase
832 if it isn't appropriate. Please see the template `pre-rebase` hook script
833 for an example.
834
835 Upon completion, `<branch>` will be the current branch.
836
837 INTERACTIVE MODE
838 ----------------
839
840 Rebasing interactively means that you have a chance to edit the commits
841 which are rebased. You can reorder the commits, and you can
842 remove them (weeding out bad or otherwise unwanted patches).
843
844 The interactive mode is meant for this type of workflow:
845
846 1. have a wonderful idea
847 2. hack on the code
848 3. prepare a series for submission
849 4. submit
850
851 where point 2. consists of several instances of
852
853 a) regular use
854
855 1. finish something worthy of a commit
856 2. commit
857
858 b) independent fixup
859
860 1. realize that something does not work
861 2. fix that
862 3. commit it
863
864 Sometimes the thing fixed in b.2. cannot be amended to the not-quite
865 perfect commit it fixes, because that commit is buried deeply in a
866 patch series. That is exactly what interactive rebase is for: use it
867 after plenty of "a"s and "b"s, by rearranging and editing
868 commits, and squashing multiple commits into one.
869
870 Start it with the last commit you want to retain as-is:
871
872 git rebase -i <after-this-commit>
873
874 An editor will be fired up with all the commits in your current branch
875 (ignoring merge commits), which come after the given commit. You can
876 reorder the commits in this list to your heart's content, and you can
877 remove them. The list looks more or less like this:
878
879 -------------------------------------------
880 pick deadbee The oneline of this commit
881 pick fa1afe1 The oneline of the next commit
882 ...
883 -------------------------------------------
884
885 The oneline descriptions are purely for your pleasure; 'git rebase' will
886 not look at them but at the commit names ("deadbee" and "fa1afe1" in this
887 example), so do not delete or edit the names.
888
889 By replacing the command "pick" with the command "edit", you can tell
890 `git rebase` to stop after applying that commit, so that you can edit
891 the files and/or the commit message, amend the commit, and continue
892 rebasing.
893
894 To interrupt the rebase (just like an "edit" command would do, but without
895 cherry-picking any commit first), use the "break" command.
896
897 If you just want to edit the commit message for a commit, replace the
898 command "pick" with the command "reword".
899
900 To drop a commit, replace the command "pick" with "drop", or just
901 delete the matching line.
902
903 If you want to fold two or more commits into one, replace the command
904 "pick" for the second and subsequent commits with "squash" or "fixup".
905 If the commits had different authors, the folded commit will be
906 attributed to the author of the first commit. The suggested commit
907 message for the folded commit is the concatenation of the first
908 commit's message with those identified by "squash" commands, omitting the
909 messages of commits identified by "fixup" commands, unless "fixup -c"
910 is used. In that case the suggested commit message is only the message
911 of the "fixup -c" commit, and an editor is opened allowing you to edit
912 the message. The contents (patch) of the "fixup -c" commit are still
913 incorporated into the folded commit. If there is more than one "fixup -c"
914 commit, the message from the final one is used. You can also use
915 "fixup -C" to get the same behavior as "fixup -c" except without opening
916 an editor.
917
918 `git rebase` will stop when "pick" has been replaced with "edit" or
919 when a command fails due to merge errors. When you are done editing
920 and/or resolving conflicts you can continue with `git rebase --continue`.
921
922 For example, if you want to reorder the last 5 commits, such that what
923 was `HEAD~4` becomes the new `HEAD`. To achieve that, you would call
924 `git rebase` like this:
925
926 ----------------------
927 $ git rebase -i HEAD~5
928 ----------------------
929
930 And move the first patch to the end of the list.
931
932 You might want to recreate merge commits, e.g. if you have a history
933 like this:
934
935 ------------------
936 X
937 \
938 A---M---B
939 /
940 ---o---O---P---Q
941 ------------------
942
943 Suppose you want to rebase the side branch starting at "A" to "Q". Make
944 sure that the current `HEAD` is "B", and call
945
946 -----------------------------
947 $ git rebase -i -r --onto Q O
948 -----------------------------
949
950 Reordering and editing commits usually creates untested intermediate
951 steps. You may want to check that your history editing did not break
952 anything by running a test, or at least recompiling at intermediate
953 points in history by using the "exec" command (shortcut "x"). You may
954 do so by creating a todo list like this one:
955
956 -------------------------------------------
957 pick deadbee Implement feature XXX
958 fixup f1a5c00 Fix to feature XXX
959 exec make
960 pick c0ffeee The oneline of the next commit
961 edit deadbab The oneline of the commit after
962 exec cd subdir; make test
963 ...
964 -------------------------------------------
965
966 The interactive rebase will stop when a command fails (i.e. exits with
967 non-0 status) to give you an opportunity to fix the problem. You can
968 continue with `git rebase --continue`.
969
970 The "exec" command launches the command in a shell (the default one, usually
971 /bin/sh), so you can use shell features (like "cd", ">", ";" ...). The command
972 is run from the root of the working tree.
973
974 ----------------------------------
975 $ git rebase -i --exec "make test"
976 ----------------------------------
977
978 This command lets you check that intermediate commits are compilable.
979 The todo list becomes like that:
980
981 --------------------
982 pick 5928aea one
983 exec make test
984 pick 04d0fda two
985 exec make test
986 pick ba46169 three
987 exec make test
988 pick f4593f9 four
989 exec make test
990 --------------------
991
992 SPLITTING COMMITS
993 -----------------
994
995 In interactive mode, you can mark commits with the action "edit". However,
996 this does not necessarily mean that `git rebase` expects the result of this
997 edit to be exactly one commit. Indeed, you can undo the commit, or you can
998 add other commits. This can be used to split a commit into two:
999
1000 - Start an interactive rebase with `git rebase -i <commit>^`, where
1001 `<commit>` is the commit you want to split. In fact, any commit range
1002 will do, as long as it contains that commit.
1003
1004 - Mark the commit you want to split with the action "edit".
1005
1006 - When it comes to editing that commit, execute `git reset HEAD^`. The
1007 effect is that the `HEAD` is rewound by one, and the index follows suit.
1008 However, the working tree stays the same.
1009
1010 - Now add the changes to the index that you want to have in the first
1011 commit. You can use `git add` (possibly interactively) or
1012 `git gui` (or both) to do that.
1013
1014 - Commit the now-current index with whatever commit message is appropriate
1015 now.
1016
1017 - Repeat the last two steps until your working tree is clean.
1018
1019 - Continue the rebase with `git rebase --continue`.
1020
1021 If you are not absolutely sure that the intermediate revisions are
1022 consistent (they compile, pass the testsuite, etc.) you should use
1023 `git stash` to stash away the not-yet-committed changes
1024 after each commit, test, and amend the commit if fixes are necessary.
1025
1026
1027 RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
1028 -------------------------------
1029
1030 Rebasing (or any other form of rewriting) a branch that others have
1031 based work on is a bad idea: anyone downstream of it is forced to
1032 manually fix their history. This section explains how to do the fix
1033 from the downstream's point of view. The real fix, however, would be
1034 to avoid rebasing the upstream in the first place.
1035
1036 To illustrate, suppose you are in a situation where someone develops a
1037 'subsystem' branch, and you are working on a 'topic' that is dependent
1038 on this 'subsystem'. You might end up with a history like the
1039 following:
1040
1041 ------------
1042 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
1043 \
1044 o---o---o---o---o subsystem
1045 \
1046 *---*---* topic
1047 ------------
1048
1049 If 'subsystem' is rebased against 'master', the following happens:
1050
1051 ------------
1052 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
1053 \ \
1054 o---o---o---o---o o'--o'--o'--o'--o' subsystem
1055 \
1056 *---*---* topic
1057 ------------
1058
1059 If you now continue development as usual, and eventually merge 'topic'
1060 to 'subsystem', the commits from 'subsystem' will remain duplicated forever:
1061
1062 ------------
1063 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
1064 \ \
1065 o---o---o---o---o o'--o'--o'--o'--o'--M subsystem
1066 \ /
1067 *---*---*-..........-*--* topic
1068 ------------
1069
1070 Such duplicates are generally frowned upon because they clutter up
1071 history, making it harder to follow. To clean things up, you need to
1072 transplant the commits on 'topic' to the new 'subsystem' tip, i.e.,
1073 rebase 'topic'. This becomes a ripple effect: anyone downstream from
1074 'topic' is forced to rebase too, and so on!
1075
1076 There are two kinds of fixes, discussed in the following subsections:
1077
1078 Easy case: The changes are literally the same.::
1079
1080 This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase was a simple rebase and
1081 had no conflicts.
1082
1083 Hard case: The changes are not the same.::
1084
1085 This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase had conflicts, or used
1086 `--interactive` to omit, edit, squash, or fixup commits; or
1087 if the upstream used one of `commit --amend`, `reset`, or
1088 a full history rewriting command like
1089 https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo[`filter-repo`].
1090
1091
1092 The easy case
1093 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1094
1095 Only works if the changes (patch IDs based on the diff contents) on
1096 'subsystem' are literally the same before and after the rebase
1097 'subsystem' did.
1098
1099 In that case, the fix is easy because 'git rebase' knows to skip
1100 changes that are already present in the new upstream (unless
1101 `--reapply-cherry-picks` is given). So if you say
1102 (assuming you're on 'topic')
1103
1104 ------------
1105 $ git rebase subsystem
1106 ------------
1107 you will end up with the fixed history
1108
1109 ------------
1110 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
1111 \
1112 o'--o'--o'--o'--o' subsystem
1113 \
1114 *---*---* topic
1115 ------------
1116
1117
1118 The hard case
1119 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1120
1121 Things get more complicated if the 'subsystem' changes do not exactly
1122 correspond to the ones before the rebase.
1123
1124 NOTE: While an "easy case recovery" sometimes appears to be successful
1125 even in the hard case, it may have unintended consequences. For
1126 example, a commit that was removed via `git rebase
1127 --interactive` will be **resurrected**!
1128
1129 The idea is to manually tell `git rebase` "where the old 'subsystem'
1130 ended and your 'topic' began", that is, what the old merge base
1131 between them was. You will have to find a way to name the last commit
1132 of the old 'subsystem', for example:
1133
1134 * With the 'subsystem' reflog: after `git fetch`, the old tip of
1135 'subsystem' is at `subsystem@{1}`. Subsequent fetches will
1136 increase the number. (See linkgit:git-reflog[1].)
1137
1138 * Relative to the tip of 'topic': knowing that your 'topic' has three
1139 commits, the old tip of 'subsystem' must be `topic~3`.
1140
1141 You can then transplant the old `subsystem..topic` to the new tip by
1142 saying (for the reflog case, and assuming you are on 'topic' already):
1143
1144 ------------
1145 $ git rebase --onto subsystem subsystem@{1}
1146 ------------
1147
1148 The ripple effect of a "hard case" recovery is especially bad:
1149 'everyone' downstream from 'topic' will now have to perform a "hard
1150 case" recovery too!
1151
1152 REBASING MERGES
1153 ---------------
1154
1155 The interactive rebase command was originally designed to handle
1156 individual patch series. As such, it makes sense to exclude merge
1157 commits from the todo list, as the developer may have merged the
1158 then-current `master` while working on the branch, only to rebase
1159 all the commits onto `master` eventually (skipping the merge
1160 commits).
1161
1162 However, there are legitimate reasons why a developer may want to
1163 recreate merge commits: to keep the branch structure (or "commit
1164 topology") when working on multiple, inter-related branches.
1165
1166 In the following example, the developer works on a topic branch that
1167 refactors the way buttons are defined, and on another topic branch
1168 that uses that refactoring to implement a "Report a bug" button. The
1169 output of `git log --graph --format=%s -5` may look like this:
1170
1171 ------------
1172 * Merge branch 'report-a-bug'
1173 |\
1174 | * Add the feedback button
1175 * | Merge branch 'refactor-button'
1176 |\ \
1177 | |/
1178 | * Use the Button class for all buttons
1179 | * Extract a generic Button class from the DownloadButton one
1180 ------------
1181
1182 The developer might want to rebase those commits to a newer `master`
1183 while keeping the branch topology, for example when the first topic
1184 branch is expected to be integrated into `master` much earlier than the
1185 second one, say, to resolve merge conflicts with changes to the
1186 DownloadButton class that made it into `master`.
1187
1188 This rebase can be performed using the `--rebase-merges` option.
1189 It will generate a todo list looking like this:
1190
1191 ------------
1192 label onto
1193
1194 # Branch: refactor-button
1195 reset onto
1196 pick 123456 Extract a generic Button class from the DownloadButton one
1197 pick 654321 Use the Button class for all buttons
1198 label refactor-button
1199
1200 # Branch: report-a-bug
1201 reset refactor-button # Use the Button class for all buttons
1202 pick abcdef Add the feedback button
1203 label report-a-bug
1204
1205 reset onto
1206 merge -C a1b2c3 refactor-button # Merge 'refactor-button'
1207 merge -C 6f5e4d report-a-bug # Merge 'report-a-bug'
1208 ------------
1209
1210 In contrast to a regular interactive rebase, there are `label`, `reset`
1211 and `merge` commands in addition to `pick` ones.
1212
1213 The `label` command associates a label with the current HEAD when that
1214 command is executed. These labels are created as worktree-local refs
1215 (`refs/rewritten/<label>`) that will be deleted when the rebase
1216 finishes. That way, rebase operations in multiple worktrees linked to
1217 the same repository do not interfere with one another. If the `label`
1218 command fails, it is rescheduled immediately, with a helpful message how
1219 to proceed.
1220
1221 The `reset` command resets the HEAD, index and worktree to the specified
1222 revision. It is similar to an `exec git reset --hard <label>`, but
1223 refuses to overwrite untracked files. If the `reset` command fails, it is
1224 rescheduled immediately, with a helpful message how to edit the todo list
1225 (this typically happens when a `reset` command was inserted into the todo
1226 list manually and contains a typo).
1227
1228 The `merge` command will merge the specified revision(s) into whatever
1229 is HEAD at that time. With `-C <original-commit>`, the commit message of
1230 the specified merge commit will be used. When the `-C` is changed to
1231 a lower-case `-c`, the message will be opened in an editor after a
1232 successful merge so that the user can edit the message.
1233
1234 If a `merge` command fails for any reason other than merge conflicts (i.e.
1235 when the merge operation did not even start), it is rescheduled immediately.
1236
1237 By default, the `merge` command will use the `ort` merge strategy for
1238 regular merges, and `octopus` for octopus merges. One can specify a
1239 default strategy for all merges using the `--strategy` argument when
1240 invoking rebase, or can override specific merges in the interactive
1241 list of commands by using an `exec` command to call `git merge`
1242 explicitly with a `--strategy` argument. Note that when calling `git
1243 merge` explicitly like this, you can make use of the fact that the
1244 labels are worktree-local refs (the ref `refs/rewritten/onto` would
1245 correspond to the label `onto`, for example) in order to refer to the
1246 branches you want to merge.
1247
1248 Note: the first command (`label onto`) labels the revision onto which
1249 the commits are rebased; The name `onto` is just a convention, as a nod
1250 to the `--onto` option.
1251
1252 It is also possible to introduce completely new merge commits from scratch
1253 by adding a command of the form `merge <merge-head>`. This form will
1254 generate a tentative commit message and always open an editor to let the
1255 user edit it. This can be useful e.g. when a topic branch turns out to
1256 address more than a single concern and wants to be split into two or
1257 even more topic branches. Consider this todo list:
1258
1259 ------------
1260 pick 192837 Switch from GNU Makefiles to CMake
1261 pick 5a6c7e Document the switch to CMake
1262 pick 918273 Fix detection of OpenSSL in CMake
1263 pick afbecd http: add support for TLS v1.3
1264 pick fdbaec Fix detection of cURL in CMake on Windows
1265 ------------
1266
1267 The one commit in this list that is not related to CMake may very well
1268 have been motivated by working on fixing all those bugs introduced by
1269 switching to CMake, but it addresses a different concern. To split this
1270 branch into two topic branches, the todo list could be edited like this:
1271
1272 ------------
1273 label onto
1274
1275 pick afbecd http: add support for TLS v1.3
1276 label tlsv1.3
1277
1278 reset onto
1279 pick 192837 Switch from GNU Makefiles to CMake
1280 pick 918273 Fix detection of OpenSSL in CMake
1281 pick fdbaec Fix detection of cURL in CMake on Windows
1282 pick 5a6c7e Document the switch to CMake
1283 label cmake
1284
1285 reset onto
1286 merge tlsv1.3
1287 merge cmake
1288 ------------
1289
1290 CONFIGURATION
1291 -------------
1292
1293 include::includes/cmd-config-section-all.adoc[]
1294
1295 include::config/rebase.adoc[]
1296 include::config/sequencer.adoc[]
1297
1298 GIT
1299 ---
1300 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite