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 | --edit-todo
23 If <branch> is specified, 'git rebase' will perform an automatic
24 `git checkout <branch>` before doing anything else. Otherwise
25 it remains on the current branch.
27 If <upstream> is not specified, the upstream configured in
28 branch.<name>.remote and branch.<name>.merge options will be used (see
29 linkgit:git-config[1] for details) and the `--fork-point` option is
30 assumed. If you are currently not on any branch or if the current
31 branch does not have a configured upstream, the rebase will abort.
33 All changes made by commits in the current branch but that are not
34 in <upstream> are saved to a temporary area. This is the same set
35 of commits that would be shown by `git log <upstream>..HEAD`; or by
36 `git log 'fork_point'..HEAD`, if `--fork-point` is active (see the
37 description on `--fork-point` below); or by `git log HEAD`, if the
38 `--root` option is specified.
40 The current branch is reset to <upstream>, or <newbase> if the
41 --onto option was supplied. This has the exact same effect as
42 `git reset --hard <upstream>` (or <newbase>). ORIG_HEAD is set
43 to point at the tip of the branch before the reset.
45 The commits that were previously saved into the temporary area are
46 then reapplied to the current branch, one by one, in order. Note that
47 any commits in HEAD which introduce the same textual changes as a commit
48 in HEAD..<upstream> are omitted (i.e., a patch already accepted upstream
49 with a different commit message or timestamp will be skipped).
51 It is possible that a merge failure will prevent this process from being
52 completely automatic. You will have to resolve any such merge failure
53 and run `git rebase --continue`. Another option is to bypass the commit
54 that caused the merge failure with `git rebase --skip`. To check out the
55 original <branch> and remove the .git/rebase-apply working files, use the
56 command `git rebase --abort` instead.
58 Assume the following history exists and the current branch is "topic":
66 From this point, the result of either of the following commands:
70 git rebase master topic
80 *NOTE:* The latter form is just a short-hand of `git checkout topic`
81 followed by `git rebase master`. When rebase exits `topic` will
82 remain the checked-out branch.
84 If the upstream branch already contains a change you have made (e.g.,
85 because you mailed a patch which was applied upstream), then that commit
86 will be skipped. For example, running `git rebase master` on the
87 following history (in which `A'` and `A` introduce the same set of changes,
88 but have different committer information):
101 D---E---A'---F master
104 Here is how you would transplant a topic branch based on one
105 branch to another, to pretend that you forked the topic branch
106 from the latter branch, using `rebase --onto`.
108 First let's assume your 'topic' is based on branch 'next'.
109 For example, a feature developed in 'topic' depends on some
110 functionality which is found in 'next'.
113 o---o---o---o---o master
115 o---o---o---o---o next
120 We want to make 'topic' forked from branch 'master'; for example,
121 because the functionality on which 'topic' depends was merged into the
122 more stable 'master' branch. We want our tree to look like this:
125 o---o---o---o---o master
129 o---o---o---o---o next
132 We can get this using the following command:
134 git rebase --onto master next topic
137 Another example of --onto option is to rebase part of a
138 branch. If we have the following situation:
150 git rebase --onto master topicA topicB
162 This is useful when topicB does not depend on topicA.
164 A range of commits could also be removed with rebase. If we have
165 the following situation:
168 E---F---G---H---I---J topicA
173 git rebase --onto topicA~5 topicA~3 topicA
175 would result in the removal of commits F and G:
178 E---H'---I'---J' topicA
181 This is useful if F and G were flawed in some way, or should not be
182 part of topicA. Note that the argument to --onto and the <upstream>
183 parameter can be any valid commit-ish.
185 In case of conflict, 'git rebase' will stop at the first problematic commit
186 and leave conflict markers in the tree. You can use 'git diff' to locate
187 the markers (<<<<<<) and make edits to resolve the conflict. For each
188 file you edit, you need to tell Git that the conflict has been resolved,
189 typically this would be done with
195 After resolving the conflict manually and updating the index with the
196 desired resolution, you can continue the rebasing process with
199 git rebase --continue
202 Alternatively, you can undo the 'git rebase' with
211 Whether to show a diffstat of what changed upstream since the last
212 rebase. False by default.
215 If set to true enable '--autosquash' option by default.
218 If set to true enable '--autostash' option by default.
220 rebase.missingCommitsCheck::
221 If set to "warn", print warnings about removed commits in
222 interactive mode. If set to "error", print the warnings and
223 stop the rebase. If set to "ignore", no checking is
224 done. "ignore" by default.
226 rebase.instructionFormat::
227 Custom commit list format to use during an '--interactive' rebase.
232 Starting point at which to create the new commits. If the
233 --onto option is not specified, the starting point is
234 <upstream>. May be any valid commit, and not just an
235 existing branch name.
237 As a special case, you may use "A\...B" as a shortcut for the
238 merge base of A and B if there is exactly one merge base. You can
239 leave out at most one of A and B, in which case it defaults to HEAD.
242 Upstream branch to compare against. May be any valid commit,
243 not just an existing branch name. Defaults to the configured
244 upstream for the current branch.
247 Working branch; defaults to HEAD.
250 Restart the rebasing process after having resolved a merge conflict.
253 Abort the rebase operation and reset HEAD to the original
254 branch. If <branch> was provided when the rebase operation was
255 started, then HEAD will be reset to <branch>. Otherwise HEAD
256 will be reset to where it was when the rebase operation was
260 Keep the commits that do not change anything from its
261 parents in the result.
264 Restart the rebasing process by skipping the current patch.
267 Edit the todo list during an interactive rebase.
271 Use merging strategies to rebase. When the recursive (default) merge
272 strategy is used, this allows rebase to be aware of renames on the
275 Note that a rebase merge works by replaying each commit from the working
276 branch on top of the <upstream> branch. Because of this, when a merge
277 conflict happens, the side reported as 'ours' is the so-far rebased
278 series, starting with <upstream>, and 'theirs' is the working branch. In
279 other words, the sides are swapped.
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 discards all patches from the <branch>,
290 which makes little sense.
292 -X <strategy-option>::
293 --strategy-option=<strategy-option>::
294 Pass the <strategy-option> through to the merge strategy.
295 This implies `--merge` and, if no strategy has been
296 specified, `-s recursive`. Note the reversal of 'ours' and
297 'theirs' as noted above for the `-m` option.
300 --gpg-sign[=<keyid>]::
301 GPG-sign commits. The `keyid` argument is optional and
302 defaults to the committer identity; if specified, it must be
303 stuck to the option without a space.
307 Be quiet. Implies --no-stat.
311 Be verbose. Implies --stat.
314 Show a diffstat of what changed upstream since the last rebase. The
315 diffstat is also controlled by the configuration option rebase.stat.
319 Do not show a diffstat as part of the rebase process.
322 This option bypasses the pre-rebase hook. See also linkgit:githooks[5].
325 Allows the pre-rebase hook to run, which is the default. This option can
326 be used to override --no-verify. See also linkgit:githooks[5].
329 Ensure at least <n> lines of surrounding context match before
330 and after each change. When fewer lines of surrounding
331 context exist they all must match. By default no context is
336 Force a rebase even if the current branch is up-to-date and
337 the command without `--force` would return without doing anything.
339 You may find this (or --no-ff with an interactive rebase) helpful after
340 reverting a topic branch merge, as this option recreates the topic branch with
341 fresh commits so it can be remerged successfully without needing to "revert
342 the reversion" (see the
343 link:howto/revert-a-faulty-merge.html[revert-a-faulty-merge How-To] for details).
347 Use reflog to find a better common ancestor between <upstream>
348 and <branch> when calculating which commits have been
349 introduced by <branch>.
351 When --fork-point is active, 'fork_point' will be used instead of
352 <upstream> to calculate the set of commits to rebase, where
353 'fork_point' is the result of `git merge-base --fork-point <upstream>
354 <branch>` command (see linkgit:git-merge-base[1]). If 'fork_point'
355 ends up being empty, the <upstream> will be used as a fallback.
357 If either <upstream> or --root is given on the command line, then the
358 default is `--no-fork-point`, otherwise the default is `--fork-point`.
360 --ignore-whitespace::
361 --whitespace=<option>::
362 These flag are passed to the 'git apply' program
363 (see linkgit:git-apply[1]) that applies the patch.
364 Incompatible with the --interactive option.
366 --committer-date-is-author-date::
368 These flags are passed to 'git am' to easily change the dates
369 of the rebased commits (see linkgit:git-am[1]).
370 Incompatible with the --interactive option.
374 Make a list of the commits which are about to be rebased. Let the
375 user edit that list before rebasing. This mode can also be used to
376 split commits (see SPLITTING COMMITS below).
378 The commit list format can be changed by setting the configuration option
379 rebase.instructionFormat. A customized instruction format will automatically
380 have the long commit hash prepended to the format.
384 Recreate merge commits instead of flattening the history by replaying
385 commits a merge commit introduces. Merge conflict resolutions or manual
386 amendments to merge commits are not preserved.
388 This uses the `--interactive` machinery internally, but combining it
389 with the `--interactive` option explicitly is generally not a good
390 idea unless you know what you are doing (see BUGS below).
394 Append "exec <cmd>" after each line creating a commit in the
395 final history. <cmd> will be interpreted as one or more shell
398 This option can only be used with the `--interactive` option
399 (see INTERACTIVE MODE below).
401 You may execute several commands by either using one instance of `--exec`
402 with several commands:
404 git rebase -i --exec "cmd1 && cmd2 && ..."
406 or by giving more than one `--exec`:
408 git rebase -i --exec "cmd1" --exec "cmd2" --exec ...
410 If `--autosquash` is used, "exec" lines will not be appended for
411 the intermediate commits, and will only appear at the end of each
415 Rebase all commits reachable from <branch>, instead of
416 limiting them with an <upstream>. This allows you to rebase
417 the root commit(s) on a branch. When used with --onto, it
418 will skip changes already contained in <newbase> (instead of
419 <upstream>) whereas without --onto it will operate on every change.
420 When used together with both --onto and --preserve-merges,
421 'all' root commits will be rewritten to have <newbase> as parent
426 When the commit log message begins with "squash! ..." (or
427 "fixup! ..."), and there is a commit whose title begins with
428 the same ..., automatically modify the todo list of rebase -i
429 so that the commit marked for squashing comes right after the
430 commit to be modified, and change the action of the moved
431 commit from `pick` to `squash` (or `fixup`). Ignores subsequent
432 "fixup! " or "squash! " after the first, in case you referred to an
433 earlier fixup/squash with `git commit --fixup/--squash`.
435 This option is only valid when the '--interactive' option is used.
437 If the '--autosquash' option is enabled by default using the
438 configuration variable `rebase.autoSquash`, this option can be
439 used to override and disable this setting.
443 Automatically create a temporary stash before the operation
444 begins, and apply it after the operation ends. This means
445 that you can run rebase on a dirty worktree. However, use
446 with care: the final stash application after a successful
447 rebase might result in non-trivial conflicts.
450 With --interactive, cherry-pick all rebased commits instead of
451 fast-forwarding over the unchanged ones. This ensures that the
452 entire history of the rebased branch is composed of new commits.
454 Without --interactive, this is a synonym for --force-rebase.
456 You may find this helpful after reverting a topic branch merge, as this option
457 recreates the topic branch with fresh commits so it can be remerged
458 successfully without needing to "revert the reversion" (see the
459 link:howto/revert-a-faulty-merge.html[revert-a-faulty-merge How-To] for details).
461 include::merge-strategies.txt[]
466 You should understand the implications of using 'git rebase' on a
467 repository that you share. See also RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
470 When the git-rebase command is run, it will first execute a "pre-rebase"
471 hook if one exists. You can use this hook to do sanity checks and
472 reject the rebase if it isn't appropriate. Please see the template
473 pre-rebase hook script for an example.
475 Upon completion, <branch> will be the current branch.
480 Rebasing interactively means that you have a chance to edit the commits
481 which are rebased. You can reorder the commits, and you can
482 remove them (weeding out bad or otherwise unwanted patches).
484 The interactive mode is meant for this type of workflow:
486 1. have a wonderful idea
488 3. prepare a series for submission
491 where point 2. consists of several instances of
495 1. finish something worthy of a commit
500 1. realize that something does not work
504 Sometimes the thing fixed in b.2. cannot be amended to the not-quite
505 perfect commit it fixes, because that commit is buried deeply in a
506 patch series. That is exactly what interactive rebase is for: use it
507 after plenty of "a"s and "b"s, by rearranging and editing
508 commits, and squashing multiple commits into one.
510 Start it with the last commit you want to retain as-is:
512 git rebase -i <after-this-commit>
514 An editor will be fired up with all the commits in your current branch
515 (ignoring merge commits), which come after the given commit. You can
516 reorder the commits in this list to your heart's content, and you can
517 remove them. The list looks more or less like this:
519 -------------------------------------------
520 pick deadbee The oneline of this commit
521 pick fa1afe1 The oneline of the next commit
523 -------------------------------------------
525 The oneline descriptions are purely for your pleasure; 'git rebase' will
526 not look at them but at the commit names ("deadbee" and "fa1afe1" in this
527 example), so do not delete or edit the names.
529 By replacing the command "pick" with the command "edit", you can tell
530 'git rebase' to stop after applying that commit, so that you can edit
531 the files and/or the commit message, amend the commit, and continue
534 If you just want to edit the commit message for a commit, replace the
535 command "pick" with the command "reword".
537 To drop a commit, replace the command "pick" with "drop", or just
538 delete the matching line.
540 If you want to fold two or more commits into one, replace the command
541 "pick" for the second and subsequent commits with "squash" or "fixup".
542 If the commits had different authors, the folded commit will be
543 attributed to the author of the first commit. The suggested commit
544 message for the folded commit is the concatenation of the commit
545 messages of the first commit and of those with the "squash" command,
546 but omits the commit messages of commits with the "fixup" command.
548 'git rebase' will stop when "pick" has been replaced with "edit" or
549 when a command fails due to merge errors. When you are done editing
550 and/or resolving conflicts you can continue with `git rebase --continue`.
552 For example, if you want to reorder the last 5 commits, such that what
553 was HEAD~4 becomes the new HEAD. To achieve that, you would call
554 'git rebase' like this:
556 ----------------------
557 $ git rebase -i HEAD~5
558 ----------------------
560 And move the first patch to the end of the list.
562 You might want to preserve merges, if you have a history like this:
572 Suppose you want to rebase the side branch starting at "A" to "Q". Make
573 sure that the current HEAD is "B", and call
575 -----------------------------
576 $ git rebase -i -p --onto Q O
577 -----------------------------
579 Reordering and editing commits usually creates untested intermediate
580 steps. You may want to check that your history editing did not break
581 anything by running a test, or at least recompiling at intermediate
582 points in history by using the "exec" command (shortcut "x"). You may
583 do so by creating a todo list like this one:
585 -------------------------------------------
586 pick deadbee Implement feature XXX
587 fixup f1a5c00 Fix to feature XXX
589 pick c0ffeee The oneline of the next commit
590 edit deadbab The oneline of the commit after
591 exec cd subdir; make test
593 -------------------------------------------
595 The interactive rebase will stop when a command fails (i.e. exits with
596 non-0 status) to give you an opportunity to fix the problem. You can
597 continue with `git rebase --continue`.
599 The "exec" command launches the command in a shell (the one specified
600 in `$SHELL`, or the default shell if `$SHELL` is not set), so you can
601 use shell features (like "cd", ">", ";" ...). The command is run from
602 the root of the working tree.
604 ----------------------------------
605 $ git rebase -i --exec "make test"
606 ----------------------------------
608 This command lets you check that intermediate commits are compilable.
609 The todo list becomes like that:
625 In interactive mode, you can mark commits with the action "edit". However,
626 this does not necessarily mean that 'git rebase' expects the result of this
627 edit to be exactly one commit. Indeed, you can undo the commit, or you can
628 add other commits. This can be used to split a commit into two:
630 - Start an interactive rebase with `git rebase -i <commit>^`, where
631 <commit> is the commit you want to split. In fact, any commit range
632 will do, as long as it contains that commit.
634 - Mark the commit you want to split with the action "edit".
636 - When it comes to editing that commit, execute `git reset HEAD^`. The
637 effect is that the HEAD is rewound by one, and the index follows suit.
638 However, the working tree stays the same.
640 - Now add the changes to the index that you want to have in the first
641 commit. You can use `git add` (possibly interactively) or
642 'git gui' (or both) to do that.
644 - Commit the now-current index with whatever commit message is appropriate
647 - Repeat the last two steps until your working tree is clean.
649 - Continue the rebase with `git rebase --continue`.
651 If you are not absolutely sure that the intermediate revisions are
652 consistent (they compile, pass the testsuite, etc.) you should use
653 'git stash' to stash away the not-yet-committed changes
654 after each commit, test, and amend the commit if fixes are necessary.
657 RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
658 -------------------------------
660 Rebasing (or any other form of rewriting) a branch that others have
661 based work on is a bad idea: anyone downstream of it is forced to
662 manually fix their history. This section explains how to do the fix
663 from the downstream's point of view. The real fix, however, would be
664 to avoid rebasing the upstream in the first place.
666 To illustrate, suppose you are in a situation where someone develops a
667 'subsystem' branch, and you are working on a 'topic' that is dependent
668 on this 'subsystem'. You might end up with a history like the
672 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
674 o---o---o---o---o subsystem
679 If 'subsystem' is rebased against 'master', the following happens:
682 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
684 o---o---o---o---o o'--o'--o'--o'--o' subsystem
689 If you now continue development as usual, and eventually merge 'topic'
690 to 'subsystem', the commits from 'subsystem' will remain duplicated forever:
693 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
695 o---o---o---o---o o'--o'--o'--o'--o'--M subsystem
697 *---*---*-..........-*--* topic
700 Such duplicates are generally frowned upon because they clutter up
701 history, making it harder to follow. To clean things up, you need to
702 transplant the commits on 'topic' to the new 'subsystem' tip, i.e.,
703 rebase 'topic'. This becomes a ripple effect: anyone downstream from
704 'topic' is forced to rebase too, and so on!
706 There are two kinds of fixes, discussed in the following subsections:
708 Easy case: The changes are literally the same.::
710 This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase was a simple rebase and
713 Hard case: The changes are not the same.::
715 This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase had conflicts, or used
716 `--interactive` to omit, edit, squash, or fixup commits; or
717 if the upstream used one of `commit --amend`, `reset`, or
724 Only works if the changes (patch IDs based on the diff contents) on
725 'subsystem' are literally the same before and after the rebase
728 In that case, the fix is easy because 'git rebase' knows to skip
729 changes that are already present in the new upstream. So if you say
730 (assuming you're on 'topic')
732 $ git rebase subsystem
734 you will end up with the fixed history
736 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
738 o'--o'--o'--o'--o' subsystem
747 Things get more complicated if the 'subsystem' changes do not exactly
748 correspond to the ones before the rebase.
750 NOTE: While an "easy case recovery" sometimes appears to be successful
751 even in the hard case, it may have unintended consequences. For
752 example, a commit that was removed via `git rebase
753 --interactive` will be **resurrected**!
755 The idea is to manually tell 'git rebase' "where the old 'subsystem'
756 ended and your 'topic' began", that is, what the old merge-base
757 between them was. You will have to find a way to name the last commit
758 of the old 'subsystem', for example:
760 * With the 'subsystem' reflog: after 'git fetch', the old tip of
761 'subsystem' is at `subsystem@{1}`. Subsequent fetches will
762 increase the number. (See linkgit:git-reflog[1].)
764 * Relative to the tip of 'topic': knowing that your 'topic' has three
765 commits, the old tip of 'subsystem' must be `topic~3`.
767 You can then transplant the old `subsystem..topic` to the new tip by
768 saying (for the reflog case, and assuming you are on 'topic' already):
770 $ git rebase --onto subsystem subsystem@{1}
773 The ripple effect of a "hard case" recovery is especially bad:
774 'everyone' downstream from 'topic' will now have to perform a "hard
779 The todo list presented by `--preserve-merges --interactive` does not
780 represent the topology of the revision graph. Editing commits and
781 rewording their commit messages should work fine, but attempts to
782 reorder commits tend to produce counterintuitive results.
784 For example, an attempt to rearrange
786 1 --- 2 --- 3 --- 4 --- 5
790 1 --- 2 --- 4 --- 3 --- 5
792 by moving the "pick 4" line will result in the following history:
801 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite