6 git-rebase - Forward-port local commits to the updated upstream head
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
24 If <branch> is specified, 'git rebase' will perform an automatic
25 `git checkout <branch>` before doing anything else. Otherwise
26 it remains on the current branch.
28 If <upstream> is not specified, the upstream configured in
29 branch.<name>.remote and branch.<name>.merge options will be used; see
30 linkgit:git-config[1] for details. If you are currently not on any
31 branch or if the current branch does not have a configured upstream,
32 the rebase will abort.
34 All changes made by commits in the current branch but that are not
35 in <upstream> are saved to a temporary area. This is the same set
36 of commits that would be shown by `git log <upstream>..HEAD` (or
37 `git log HEAD`, if --root is specified).
39 The current branch is reset to <upstream>, or <newbase> if the
40 --onto option was supplied. This has the exact same effect as
41 `git reset --hard <upstream>` (or <newbase>). ORIG_HEAD is set
42 to point at the tip of the branch before the reset.
44 The commits that were previously saved into the temporary area are
45 then reapplied to the current branch, one by one, in order. Note that
46 any commits in HEAD which introduce the same textual changes as a commit
47 in HEAD..<upstream> are omitted (i.e., a patch already accepted upstream
48 with a different commit message or timestamp will be skipped).
50 It is possible that a merge failure will prevent this process from being
51 completely automatic. You will have to resolve any such merge failure
52 and run `git rebase --continue`. Another option is to bypass the commit
53 that caused the merge failure with `git rebase --skip`. To check out the
54 original <branch> and remove the .git/rebase-apply working files, use the
55 command `git rebase --abort` instead.
57 Assume the following history exists and the current branch is "topic":
65 From this point, the result of either of the following commands:
69 git rebase master topic
79 *NOTE:* The latter form is just a short-hand of `git checkout topic`
80 followed by `git rebase master`. When rebase exits `topic` will
81 remain the checked-out branch.
83 If the upstream branch already contains a change you have made (e.g.,
84 because you mailed a patch which was applied upstream), then that commit
85 will be skipped. For example, running `git rebase master` on the
86 following history (in which A' and A introduce the same set of changes,
87 but have different committer information):
100 D---E---A'---F master
103 Here is how you would transplant a topic branch based on one
104 branch to another, to pretend that you forked the topic branch
105 from the latter branch, using `rebase --onto`.
107 First let's assume your 'topic' is based on branch 'next'.
108 For example, a feature developed in 'topic' depends on some
109 functionality which is found in 'next'.
112 o---o---o---o---o master
114 o---o---o---o---o next
119 We want to make 'topic' forked from branch 'master'; for example,
120 because the functionality on which 'topic' depends was merged into the
121 more stable 'master' branch. We want our tree to look like this:
124 o---o---o---o---o master
128 o---o---o---o---o next
131 We can get this using the following command:
133 git rebase --onto master next topic
136 Another example of --onto option is to rebase part of a
137 branch. If we have the following situation:
149 git rebase --onto master topicA topicB
161 This is useful when topicB does not depend on topicA.
163 A range of commits could also be removed with rebase. If we have
164 the following situation:
167 E---F---G---H---I---J topicA
172 git rebase --onto topicA~5 topicA~3 topicA
174 would result in the removal of commits F and G:
177 E---H'---I'---J' topicA
180 This is useful if F and G were flawed in some way, or should not be
181 part of topicA. Note that the argument to --onto and the <upstream>
182 parameter can be any valid commit-ish.
184 In case of conflict, 'git rebase' will stop at the first problematic commit
185 and leave conflict markers in the tree. You can use 'git diff' to locate
186 the markers (<<<<<<) and make edits to resolve the conflict. For each
187 file you edit, you need to tell Git that the conflict has been resolved,
188 typically this would be done with
194 After resolving the conflict manually and updating the index with the
195 desired resolution, you can continue the rebasing process with
198 git rebase --continue
201 Alternatively, you can undo the 'git rebase' with
210 Whether to show a diffstat of what changed upstream since the last
211 rebase. False by default.
214 If set to true enable '--autosquash' option by default.
217 If set to true enable '--autostash' option by default.
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.
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.
232 Upstream branch to compare against. May be any valid commit,
233 not just an existing branch name. Defaults to the configured
234 upstream for the current branch.
237 Working branch; defaults to HEAD.
240 Restart the rebasing process after having resolved a merge conflict.
243 Abort the rebase operation and reset HEAD to the original
244 branch. If <branch> was provided when the rebase operation was
245 started, then HEAD will be reset to <branch>. Otherwise HEAD
246 will be reset to where it was when the rebase operation was
250 Keep the commits that do not change anything from its
251 parents in the result.
254 Restart the rebasing process by skipping the current patch.
257 Edit the todo list during an interactive rebase.
261 Use merging strategies to rebase. When the recursive (default) merge
262 strategy is used, this allows rebase to be aware of renames on the
265 Note that a rebase merge works by replaying each commit from the working
266 branch on top of the <upstream> branch. Because of this, when a merge
267 conflict happens, the side reported as 'ours' is the so-far rebased
268 series, starting with <upstream>, and 'theirs' is the working branch. In
269 other words, the sides are swapped.
272 --strategy=<strategy>::
273 Use the given merge strategy.
274 If there is no `-s` option 'git merge-recursive' is used
275 instead. This implies --merge.
277 Because 'git rebase' replays each commit from the working branch
278 on top of the <upstream> branch using the given strategy, using
279 the 'ours' strategy simply discards all patches from the <branch>,
280 which makes little sense.
282 -X <strategy-option>::
283 --strategy-option=<strategy-option>::
284 Pass the <strategy-option> through to the merge strategy.
285 This implies `--merge` and, if no strategy has been
286 specified, `-s recursive`. Note the reversal of 'ours' and
287 'theirs' as noted above for the `-m` option.
291 Be quiet. Implies --no-stat.
295 Be verbose. Implies --stat.
298 Show a diffstat of what changed upstream since the last rebase. The
299 diffstat is also controlled by the configuration option rebase.stat.
303 Do not show a diffstat as part of the rebase process.
306 This option bypasses the pre-rebase hook. See also linkgit:githooks[5].
309 Allows the pre-rebase hook to run, which is the default. This option can
310 be used to override --no-verify. See also linkgit:githooks[5].
313 Ensure at least <n> lines of surrounding context match before
314 and after each change. When fewer lines of surrounding
315 context exist they all must match. By default no context is
320 Force the rebase even if the current branch is a descendant
321 of the commit you are rebasing onto. Normally non-interactive rebase will
322 exit with the message "Current branch is up to date" in such a
324 Incompatible with the --interactive option.
326 You may find this (or --no-ff with an interactive rebase) helpful after
327 reverting a topic branch merge, as this option recreates the topic branch with
328 fresh commits so it can be remerged successfully without needing to "revert
329 the reversion" (see the
330 link:howto/revert-a-faulty-merge.html[revert-a-faulty-merge How-To] for details).
334 Use 'git merge-base --fork-point' to find a better common ancestor
335 between `upstream` and `branch` when calculating which commits have
336 have been introduced by `branch` (see linkgit:git-merge-base[1]).
338 If no non-option arguments are given on the command line, then the default is
339 `--fork-point @{u}` otherwise the `upstream` argument is interpreted literally
340 unless the `--fork-point` option is specified.
342 --ignore-whitespace::
343 --whitespace=<option>::
344 These flag are passed to the 'git apply' program
345 (see linkgit:git-apply[1]) that applies the patch.
346 Incompatible with the --interactive option.
348 --committer-date-is-author-date::
350 These flags are passed to 'git am' to easily change the dates
351 of the rebased commits (see linkgit:git-am[1]).
352 Incompatible with the --interactive option.
356 Make a list of the commits which are about to be rebased. Let the
357 user edit that list before rebasing. This mode can also be used to
358 split commits (see SPLITTING COMMITS below).
362 Instead of ignoring merges, try to recreate them.
364 This uses the `--interactive` machinery internally, but combining it
365 with the `--interactive` option explicitly is generally not a good
366 idea unless you know what you are doing (see BUGS below).
370 Append "exec <cmd>" after each line creating a commit in the
371 final history. <cmd> will be interpreted as one or more shell
374 This option can only be used with the `--interactive` option
375 (see INTERACTIVE MODE below).
377 You may execute several commands by either using one instance of `--exec`
378 with several commands:
380 git rebase -i --exec "cmd1 && cmd2 && ..."
382 or by giving more than one `--exec`:
384 git rebase -i --exec "cmd1" --exec "cmd2" --exec ...
386 If `--autosquash` is used, "exec" lines will not be appended for
387 the intermediate commits, and will only appear at the end of each
391 Rebase all commits reachable from <branch>, instead of
392 limiting them with an <upstream>. This allows you to rebase
393 the root commit(s) on a branch. When used with --onto, it
394 will skip changes already contained in <newbase> (instead of
395 <upstream>) whereas without --onto it will operate on every change.
396 When used together with both --onto and --preserve-merges,
397 'all' root commits will be rewritten to have <newbase> as parent
402 When the commit log message begins with "squash! ..." (or
403 "fixup! ..."), and there is a commit whose title begins with
404 the same ..., automatically modify the todo list of rebase -i
405 so that the commit marked for squashing comes right after the
406 commit to be modified, and change the action of the moved
407 commit from `pick` to `squash` (or `fixup`). Ignores subsequent
408 "fixup! " or "squash! " after the first, in case you referred to an
409 earlier fixup/squash with `git commit --fixup/--squash`.
411 This option is only valid when the '--interactive' option is used.
413 If the '--autosquash' option is enabled by default using the
414 configuration variable `rebase.autosquash`, this option can be
415 used to override and disable this setting.
418 Automatically create a temporary stash before the operation
419 begins, and apply it after the operation ends. This means
420 that you can run rebase on a dirty worktree. However, use
421 with care: the final stash application after a successful
422 rebase might result in non-trivial conflicts.
425 With --interactive, cherry-pick all rebased commits instead of
426 fast-forwarding over the unchanged ones. This ensures that the
427 entire history of the rebased branch is composed of new commits.
429 Without --interactive, this is a synonym for --force-rebase.
431 You may find this helpful after reverting a topic branch merge, as this option
432 recreates the topic branch with fresh commits so it can be remerged
433 successfully without needing to "revert the reversion" (see the
434 link:howto/revert-a-faulty-merge.html[revert-a-faulty-merge How-To] for details).
436 include::merge-strategies.txt[]
441 You should understand the implications of using 'git rebase' on a
442 repository that you share. See also RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
445 When the git-rebase command is run, it will first execute a "pre-rebase"
446 hook if one exists. You can use this hook to do sanity checks and
447 reject the rebase if it isn't appropriate. Please see the template
448 pre-rebase hook script for an example.
450 Upon completion, <branch> will be the current branch.
455 Rebasing interactively means that you have a chance to edit the commits
456 which are rebased. You can reorder the commits, and you can
457 remove them (weeding out bad or otherwise unwanted patches).
459 The interactive mode is meant for this type of workflow:
461 1. have a wonderful idea
463 3. prepare a series for submission
466 where point 2. consists of several instances of
470 1. finish something worthy of a commit
475 1. realize that something does not work
479 Sometimes the thing fixed in b.2. cannot be amended to the not-quite
480 perfect commit it fixes, because that commit is buried deeply in a
481 patch series. That is exactly what interactive rebase is for: use it
482 after plenty of "a"s and "b"s, by rearranging and editing
483 commits, and squashing multiple commits into one.
485 Start it with the last commit you want to retain as-is:
487 git rebase -i <after-this-commit>
489 An editor will be fired up with all the commits in your current branch
490 (ignoring merge commits), which come after the given commit. You can
491 reorder the commits in this list to your heart's content, and you can
492 remove them. The list looks more or less like this:
494 -------------------------------------------
495 pick deadbee The oneline of this commit
496 pick fa1afe1 The oneline of the next commit
498 -------------------------------------------
500 The oneline descriptions are purely for your pleasure; 'git rebase' will
501 not look at them but at the commit names ("deadbee" and "fa1afe1" in this
502 example), so do not delete or edit the names.
504 By replacing the command "pick" with the command "edit", you can tell
505 'git rebase' to stop after applying that commit, so that you can edit
506 the files and/or the commit message, amend the commit, and continue
509 If you just want to edit the commit message for a commit, replace the
510 command "pick" with the command "reword".
512 If you want to fold two or more commits into one, replace the command
513 "pick" for the second and subsequent commits with "squash" or "fixup".
514 If the commits had different authors, the folded commit will be
515 attributed to the author of the first commit. The suggested commit
516 message for the folded commit is the concatenation of the commit
517 messages of the first commit and of those with the "squash" command,
518 but omits the commit messages of commits with the "fixup" command.
520 'git rebase' will stop when "pick" has been replaced with "edit" or
521 when a command fails due to merge errors. When you are done editing
522 and/or resolving conflicts you can continue with `git rebase --continue`.
524 For example, if you want to reorder the last 5 commits, such that what
525 was HEAD~4 becomes the new HEAD. To achieve that, you would call
526 'git rebase' like this:
528 ----------------------
529 $ git rebase -i HEAD~5
530 ----------------------
532 And move the first patch to the end of the list.
534 You might want to preserve merges, if you have a history like this:
544 Suppose you want to rebase the side branch starting at "A" to "Q". Make
545 sure that the current HEAD is "B", and call
547 -----------------------------
548 $ git rebase -i -p --onto Q O
549 -----------------------------
551 Reordering and editing commits usually creates untested intermediate
552 steps. You may want to check that your history editing did not break
553 anything by running a test, or at least recompiling at intermediate
554 points in history by using the "exec" command (shortcut "x"). You may
555 do so by creating a todo list like this one:
557 -------------------------------------------
558 pick deadbee Implement feature XXX
559 fixup f1a5c00 Fix to feature XXX
561 pick c0ffeee The oneline of the next commit
562 edit deadbab The oneline of the commit after
563 exec cd subdir; make test
565 -------------------------------------------
567 The interactive rebase will stop when a command fails (i.e. exits with
568 non-0 status) to give you an opportunity to fix the problem. You can
569 continue with `git rebase --continue`.
571 The "exec" command launches the command in a shell (the one specified
572 in `$SHELL`, or the default shell if `$SHELL` is not set), so you can
573 use shell features (like "cd", ">", ";" ...). The command is run from
574 the root of the working tree.
576 ----------------------------------
577 $ git rebase -i --exec "make test"
578 ----------------------------------
580 This command lets you check that intermediate commits are compilable.
581 The todo list becomes like that:
597 In interactive mode, you can mark commits with the action "edit". However,
598 this does not necessarily mean that 'git rebase' expects the result of this
599 edit to be exactly one commit. Indeed, you can undo the commit, or you can
600 add other commits. This can be used to split a commit into two:
602 - Start an interactive rebase with `git rebase -i <commit>^`, where
603 <commit> is the commit you want to split. In fact, any commit range
604 will do, as long as it contains that commit.
606 - Mark the commit you want to split with the action "edit".
608 - When it comes to editing that commit, execute `git reset HEAD^`. The
609 effect is that the HEAD is rewound by one, and the index follows suit.
610 However, the working tree stays the same.
612 - Now add the changes to the index that you want to have in the first
613 commit. You can use `git add` (possibly interactively) or
614 'git gui' (or both) to do that.
616 - Commit the now-current index with whatever commit message is appropriate
619 - Repeat the last two steps until your working tree is clean.
621 - Continue the rebase with `git rebase --continue`.
623 If you are not absolutely sure that the intermediate revisions are
624 consistent (they compile, pass the testsuite, etc.) you should use
625 'git stash' to stash away the not-yet-committed changes
626 after each commit, test, and amend the commit if fixes are necessary.
629 RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
630 -------------------------------
632 Rebasing (or any other form of rewriting) a branch that others have
633 based work on is a bad idea: anyone downstream of it is forced to
634 manually fix their history. This section explains how to do the fix
635 from the downstream's point of view. The real fix, however, would be
636 to avoid rebasing the upstream in the first place.
638 To illustrate, suppose you are in a situation where someone develops a
639 'subsystem' branch, and you are working on a 'topic' that is dependent
640 on this 'subsystem'. You might end up with a history like the
644 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
646 o---o---o---o---o subsystem
651 If 'subsystem' is rebased against 'master', the following happens:
654 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
656 o---o---o---o---o o'--o'--o'--o'--o' subsystem
661 If you now continue development as usual, and eventually merge 'topic'
662 to 'subsystem', the commits from 'subsystem' will remain duplicated forever:
665 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
667 o---o---o---o---o o'--o'--o'--o'--o'--M subsystem
669 *---*---*-..........-*--* topic
672 Such duplicates are generally frowned upon because they clutter up
673 history, making it harder to follow. To clean things up, you need to
674 transplant the commits on 'topic' to the new 'subsystem' tip, i.e.,
675 rebase 'topic'. This becomes a ripple effect: anyone downstream from
676 'topic' is forced to rebase too, and so on!
678 There are two kinds of fixes, discussed in the following subsections:
680 Easy case: The changes are literally the same.::
682 This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase was a simple rebase and
685 Hard case: The changes are not the same.::
687 This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase had conflicts, or used
688 `--interactive` to omit, edit, squash, or fixup commits; or
689 if the upstream used one of `commit --amend`, `reset`, or
696 Only works if the changes (patch IDs based on the diff contents) on
697 'subsystem' are literally the same before and after the rebase
700 In that case, the fix is easy because 'git rebase' knows to skip
701 changes that are already present in the new upstream. So if you say
702 (assuming you're on 'topic')
704 $ git rebase subsystem
706 you will end up with the fixed history
708 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
710 o'--o'--o'--o'--o' subsystem
719 Things get more complicated if the 'subsystem' changes do not exactly
720 correspond to the ones before the rebase.
722 NOTE: While an "easy case recovery" sometimes appears to be successful
723 even in the hard case, it may have unintended consequences. For
724 example, a commit that was removed via `git rebase
725 --interactive` will be **resurrected**!
727 The idea is to manually tell 'git rebase' "where the old 'subsystem'
728 ended and your 'topic' began", that is, what the old merge-base
729 between them was. You will have to find a way to name the last commit
730 of the old 'subsystem', for example:
732 * With the 'subsystem' reflog: after 'git fetch', the old tip of
733 'subsystem' is at `subsystem@{1}`. Subsequent fetches will
734 increase the number. (See linkgit:git-reflog[1].)
736 * Relative to the tip of 'topic': knowing that your 'topic' has three
737 commits, the old tip of 'subsystem' must be `topic~3`.
739 You can then transplant the old `subsystem..topic` to the new tip by
740 saying (for the reflog case, and assuming you are on 'topic' already):
742 $ git rebase --onto subsystem subsystem@{1}
745 The ripple effect of a "hard case" recovery is especially bad:
746 'everyone' downstream from 'topic' will now have to perform a "hard
751 The todo list presented by `--preserve-merges --interactive` does not
752 represent the topology of the revision graph. Editing commits and
753 rewording their commit messages should work fine, but attempts to
754 reorder commits tend to produce counterintuitive results.
756 For example, an attempt to rearrange
758 1 --- 2 --- 3 --- 4 --- 5
762 1 --- 2 --- 4 --- 3 --- 5
764 by moving the "pick 4" line will result in the following history:
773 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite