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
19 If <branch> is specified, 'git rebase' will perform an automatic
20 `git checkout <branch>` before doing anything else. Otherwise
21 it remains on the current branch.
23 If <upstream> is not specified, the upstream configured in
24 branch.<name>.remote and branch.<name>.merge options will be used (see
25 linkgit:git-config[1] for details) and the `--fork-point` option is
26 assumed. If you are currently not on any branch or if the current
27 branch does not have a configured upstream, the rebase will abort.
29 All changes made by commits in the current branch but that are not
30 in <upstream> are saved to a temporary area. This is the same set
31 of commits that would be shown by `git log <upstream>..HEAD`; or by
32 `git log 'fork_point'..HEAD`, if `--fork-point` is active (see the
33 description on `--fork-point` below); or by `git log HEAD`, if the
34 `--root` option is specified.
36 The current branch is reset to <upstream>, or <newbase> if the
37 --onto option was supplied. This has the exact same effect as
38 `git reset --hard <upstream>` (or <newbase>). ORIG_HEAD is set
39 to point at the tip of the branch before the reset.
41 The commits that were previously saved into the temporary area are
42 then reapplied to the current branch, one by one, in order. Note that
43 any commits in HEAD which introduce the same textual changes as a commit
44 in HEAD..<upstream> are omitted (i.e., a patch already accepted upstream
45 with a different commit message or timestamp will be skipped).
47 It is possible that a merge failure will prevent this process from being
48 completely automatic. You will have to resolve any such merge failure
49 and run `git rebase --continue`. Another option is to bypass the commit
50 that caused the merge failure with `git rebase --skip`. To check out the
51 original <branch> and remove the .git/rebase-apply working files, use the
52 command `git rebase --abort` instead.
54 Assume the following history exists and the current branch is "topic":
62 From this point, the result of either of the following commands:
66 git rebase master topic
76 *NOTE:* The latter form is just a short-hand of `git checkout topic`
77 followed by `git rebase master`. When rebase exits `topic` will
78 remain the checked-out branch.
80 If the upstream branch already contains a change you have made (e.g.,
81 because you mailed a patch which was applied upstream), then that commit
82 will be skipped. For example, running `git rebase master` on the
83 following history (in which `A'` and `A` introduce the same set of changes,
84 but have different committer information):
100 Here is how you would transplant a topic branch based on one
101 branch to another, to pretend that you forked the topic branch
102 from the latter branch, using `rebase --onto`.
104 First let's assume your 'topic' is based on branch 'next'.
105 For example, a feature developed in 'topic' depends on some
106 functionality which is found in 'next'.
109 o---o---o---o---o master
111 o---o---o---o---o next
116 We want to make 'topic' forked from branch 'master'; for example,
117 because the functionality on which 'topic' depends was merged into the
118 more stable 'master' branch. We want our tree to look like this:
121 o---o---o---o---o master
125 o---o---o---o---o next
128 We can get this using the following command:
130 git rebase --onto master next topic
133 Another example of --onto option is to rebase part of a
134 branch. If we have the following situation:
146 git rebase --onto master topicA topicB
158 This is useful when topicB does not depend on topicA.
160 A range of commits could also be removed with rebase. If we have
161 the following situation:
164 E---F---G---H---I---J topicA
169 git rebase --onto topicA~5 topicA~3 topicA
171 would result in the removal of commits F and G:
174 E---H'---I'---J' topicA
177 This is useful if F and G were flawed in some way, or should not be
178 part of topicA. Note that the argument to --onto and the <upstream>
179 parameter can be any valid commit-ish.
181 In case of conflict, 'git rebase' will stop at the first problematic commit
182 and leave conflict markers in the tree. You can use 'git diff' to locate
183 the markers (<<<<<<) and make edits to resolve the conflict. For each
184 file you edit, you need to tell Git that the conflict has been resolved,
185 typically this would be done with
191 After resolving the conflict manually and updating the index with the
192 desired resolution, you can continue the rebasing process with
195 git rebase --continue
198 Alternatively, you can undo the 'git rebase' with
207 Whether to show a diffstat of what changed upstream since the last
208 rebase. False by default.
211 If set to true enable '--autosquash' option by default.
214 If set to true enable '--autostash' option by default.
219 Starting point at which to create the new commits. If the
220 --onto option is not specified, the starting point is
221 <upstream>. May be any valid commit, and not just an
222 existing branch name.
224 As a special case, you may use "A\...B" as a shortcut for the
225 merge base of A and B if there is exactly one merge base. You can
226 leave out at most one of A and B, in which case it defaults to HEAD.
229 Upstream branch to compare against. May be any valid commit,
230 not just an existing branch name. Defaults to the configured
231 upstream for the current branch.
234 Working branch; defaults to HEAD.
237 Restart the rebasing process after having resolved a merge conflict.
240 Abort the rebase operation and reset HEAD to the original
241 branch. If <branch> was provided when the rebase operation was
242 started, then HEAD will be reset to <branch>. Otherwise HEAD
243 will be reset to where it was when the rebase operation was
247 Keep the commits that do not change anything from its
248 parents in the result.
251 Restart the rebasing process by skipping the current patch.
254 Edit the todo list during an interactive rebase.
258 Use merging strategies to rebase. When the recursive (default) merge
259 strategy is used, this allows rebase to be aware of renames on the
262 Note that a rebase merge works by replaying each commit from the working
263 branch on top of the <upstream> branch. Because of this, when a merge
264 conflict happens, the side reported as 'ours' is the so-far rebased
265 series, starting with <upstream>, and 'theirs' is the working branch. In
266 other words, the sides are swapped.
269 --strategy=<strategy>::
270 Use the given merge strategy.
271 If there is no `-s` option 'git merge-recursive' is used
272 instead. This implies --merge.
274 Because 'git rebase' replays each commit from the working branch
275 on top of the <upstream> branch using the given strategy, using
276 the 'ours' strategy simply discards all patches from the <branch>,
277 which makes little sense.
279 -X <strategy-option>::
280 --strategy-option=<strategy-option>::
281 Pass the <strategy-option> through to the merge strategy.
282 This implies `--merge` and, if no strategy has been
283 specified, `-s recursive`. Note the reversal of 'ours' and
284 'theirs' as noted above for the `-m` option.
287 --gpg-sign[=<keyid>]::
288 GPG-sign commits. The `keyid` argument is optional and
289 defaults to the committer identity; if specified, it must be
290 stuck to the option without a space.
294 Be quiet. Implies --no-stat.
298 Be verbose. Implies --stat.
301 Show a diffstat of what changed upstream since the last rebase. The
302 diffstat is also controlled by the configuration option rebase.stat.
306 Do not show a diffstat as part of the rebase process.
309 This option bypasses the pre-rebase hook. See also linkgit:githooks[5].
312 Allows the pre-rebase hook to run, which is the default. This option can
313 be used to override --no-verify. See also linkgit:githooks[5].
316 Ensure at least <n> lines of surrounding context match before
317 and after each change. When fewer lines of surrounding
318 context exist they all must match. By default no context is
323 Force a rebase even if the current branch is up-to-date and
324 the command without `--force` would return without doing anything.
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 reflog to find a better common ancestor between <upstream>
335 and <branch> when calculating which commits have been
336 introduced by <branch>.
338 When --fork-point is active, 'fork_point' will be used instead of
339 <upstream> to calculate the set of commits to rebase, where
340 'fork_point' is the result of `git merge-base --fork-point <upstream>
341 <branch>` command (see linkgit:git-merge-base[1]). If 'fork_point'
342 ends up being empty, the <upstream> will be used as a fallback.
344 If either <upstream> or --root is given on the command line, then the
345 default is `--no-fork-point`, otherwise the default is `--fork-point`.
347 --ignore-whitespace::
348 --whitespace=<option>::
349 These flag are passed to the 'git apply' program
350 (see linkgit:git-apply[1]) that applies the patch.
351 Incompatible with the --interactive option.
353 --committer-date-is-author-date::
355 These flags are passed to 'git am' to easily change the dates
356 of the rebased commits (see linkgit:git-am[1]).
357 Incompatible with the --interactive option.
361 Make a list of the commits which are about to be rebased. Let the
362 user edit that list before rebasing. This mode can also be used to
363 split commits (see SPLITTING COMMITS below).
367 Recreate merge commits instead of flattening the history by replaying
368 commits a merge commit introduces. Merge conflict resolutions or manual
369 amendments to merge commits are not preserved.
371 This uses the `--interactive` machinery internally, but combining it
372 with the `--interactive` option explicitly is generally not a good
373 idea unless you know what you are doing (see BUGS below).
377 Append "exec <cmd>" after each line creating a commit in the
378 final history. <cmd> will be interpreted as one or more shell
381 This option can only be used with the `--interactive` option
382 (see INTERACTIVE MODE below).
384 You may execute several commands by either using one instance of `--exec`
385 with several commands:
387 git rebase -i --exec "cmd1 && cmd2 && ..."
389 or by giving more than one `--exec`:
391 git rebase -i --exec "cmd1" --exec "cmd2" --exec ...
393 If `--autosquash` is used, "exec" lines will not be appended for
394 the intermediate commits, and will only appear at the end of each
398 Rebase all commits reachable from <branch>, instead of
399 limiting them with an <upstream>. This allows you to rebase
400 the root commit(s) on a branch. When used with --onto, it
401 will skip changes already contained in <newbase> (instead of
402 <upstream>) whereas without --onto it will operate on every change.
403 When used together with both --onto and --preserve-merges,
404 'all' root commits will be rewritten to have <newbase> as parent
409 When the commit log message begins with "squash! ..." (or
410 "fixup! ..."), and there is a commit whose title begins with
411 the same ..., automatically modify the todo list of rebase -i
412 so that the commit marked for squashing comes right after the
413 commit to be modified, and change the action of the moved
414 commit from `pick` to `squash` (or `fixup`). Ignores subsequent
415 "fixup! " or "squash! " after the first, in case you referred to an
416 earlier fixup/squash with `git commit --fixup/--squash`.
418 This option is only valid when the '--interactive' option is used.
420 If the '--autosquash' option is enabled by default using the
421 configuration variable `rebase.autoSquash`, this option can be
422 used to override and disable this setting.
425 Automatically create a temporary stash before the operation
426 begins, and apply it after the operation ends. This means
427 that you can run rebase on a dirty worktree. However, use
428 with care: the final stash application after a successful
429 rebase might result in non-trivial conflicts.
432 With --interactive, cherry-pick all rebased commits instead of
433 fast-forwarding over the unchanged ones. This ensures that the
434 entire history of the rebased branch is composed of new commits.
436 Without --interactive, this is a synonym for --force-rebase.
438 You may find this helpful after reverting a topic branch merge, as this option
439 recreates the topic branch with fresh commits so it can be remerged
440 successfully without needing to "revert the reversion" (see the
441 link:howto/revert-a-faulty-merge.html[revert-a-faulty-merge How-To] for details).
443 include::merge-strategies.txt[]
448 You should understand the implications of using 'git rebase' on a
449 repository that you share. See also RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
452 When the git-rebase command is run, it will first execute a "pre-rebase"
453 hook if one exists. You can use this hook to do sanity checks and
454 reject the rebase if it isn't appropriate. Please see the template
455 pre-rebase hook script for an example.
457 Upon completion, <branch> will be the current branch.
462 Rebasing interactively means that you have a chance to edit the commits
463 which are rebased. You can reorder the commits, and you can
464 remove them (weeding out bad or otherwise unwanted patches).
466 The interactive mode is meant for this type of workflow:
468 1. have a wonderful idea
470 3. prepare a series for submission
473 where point 2. consists of several instances of
477 1. finish something worthy of a commit
482 1. realize that something does not work
486 Sometimes the thing fixed in b.2. cannot be amended to the not-quite
487 perfect commit it fixes, because that commit is buried deeply in a
488 patch series. That is exactly what interactive rebase is for: use it
489 after plenty of "a"s and "b"s, by rearranging and editing
490 commits, and squashing multiple commits into one.
492 Start it with the last commit you want to retain as-is:
494 git rebase -i <after-this-commit>
496 An editor will be fired up with all the commits in your current branch
497 (ignoring merge commits), which come after the given commit. You can
498 reorder the commits in this list to your heart's content, and you can
499 remove them. The list looks more or less like this:
501 -------------------------------------------
502 pick deadbee The oneline of this commit
503 pick fa1afe1 The oneline of the next commit
505 -------------------------------------------
507 The oneline descriptions are purely for your pleasure; 'git rebase' will
508 not look at them but at the commit names ("deadbee" and "fa1afe1" in this
509 example), so do not delete or edit the names.
511 By replacing the command "pick" with the command "edit", you can tell
512 'git rebase' to stop after applying that commit, so that you can edit
513 the files and/or the commit message, amend the commit, and continue
516 If you just want to edit the commit message for a commit, replace the
517 command "pick" with the command "reword".
519 If you want to fold two or more commits into one, replace the command
520 "pick" for the second and subsequent commits with "squash" or "fixup".
521 If the commits had different authors, the folded commit will be
522 attributed to the author of the first commit. The suggested commit
523 message for the folded commit is the concatenation of the commit
524 messages of the first commit and of those with the "squash" command,
525 but omits the commit messages of commits with the "fixup" command.
527 'git rebase' will stop when "pick" has been replaced with "edit" or
528 when a command fails due to merge errors. When you are done editing
529 and/or resolving conflicts you can continue with `git rebase --continue`.
531 For example, if you want to reorder the last 5 commits, such that what
532 was HEAD~4 becomes the new HEAD. To achieve that, you would call
533 'git rebase' like this:
535 ----------------------
536 $ git rebase -i HEAD~5
537 ----------------------
539 And move the first patch to the end of the list.
541 You might want to preserve merges, if you have a history like this:
551 Suppose you want to rebase the side branch starting at "A" to "Q". Make
552 sure that the current HEAD is "B", and call
554 -----------------------------
555 $ git rebase -i -p --onto Q O
556 -----------------------------
558 Reordering and editing commits usually creates untested intermediate
559 steps. You may want to check that your history editing did not break
560 anything by running a test, or at least recompiling at intermediate
561 points in history by using the "exec" command (shortcut "x"). You may
562 do so by creating a todo list like this one:
564 -------------------------------------------
565 pick deadbee Implement feature XXX
566 fixup f1a5c00 Fix to feature XXX
568 pick c0ffeee The oneline of the next commit
569 edit deadbab The oneline of the commit after
570 exec cd subdir; make test
572 -------------------------------------------
574 The interactive rebase will stop when a command fails (i.e. exits with
575 non-0 status) to give you an opportunity to fix the problem. You can
576 continue with `git rebase --continue`.
578 The "exec" command launches the command in a shell (the one specified
579 in `$SHELL`, or the default shell if `$SHELL` is not set), so you can
580 use shell features (like "cd", ">", ";" ...). The command is run from
581 the root of the working tree.
583 ----------------------------------
584 $ git rebase -i --exec "make test"
585 ----------------------------------
587 This command lets you check that intermediate commits are compilable.
588 The todo list becomes like that:
604 In interactive mode, you can mark commits with the action "edit". However,
605 this does not necessarily mean that 'git rebase' expects the result of this
606 edit to be exactly one commit. Indeed, you can undo the commit, or you can
607 add other commits. This can be used to split a commit into two:
609 - Start an interactive rebase with `git rebase -i <commit>^`, where
610 <commit> is the commit you want to split. In fact, any commit range
611 will do, as long as it contains that commit.
613 - Mark the commit you want to split with the action "edit".
615 - When it comes to editing that commit, execute `git reset HEAD^`. The
616 effect is that the HEAD is rewound by one, and the index follows suit.
617 However, the working tree stays the same.
619 - Now add the changes to the index that you want to have in the first
620 commit. You can use `git add` (possibly interactively) or
621 'git gui' (or both) to do that.
623 - Commit the now-current index with whatever commit message is appropriate
626 - Repeat the last two steps until your working tree is clean.
628 - Continue the rebase with `git rebase --continue`.
630 If you are not absolutely sure that the intermediate revisions are
631 consistent (they compile, pass the testsuite, etc.) you should use
632 'git stash' to stash away the not-yet-committed changes
633 after each commit, test, and amend the commit if fixes are necessary.
636 RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
637 -------------------------------
639 Rebasing (or any other form of rewriting) a branch that others have
640 based work on is a bad idea: anyone downstream of it is forced to
641 manually fix their history. This section explains how to do the fix
642 from the downstream's point of view. The real fix, however, would be
643 to avoid rebasing the upstream in the first place.
645 To illustrate, suppose you are in a situation where someone develops a
646 'subsystem' branch, and you are working on a 'topic' that is dependent
647 on this 'subsystem'. You might end up with a history like the
651 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
653 o---o---o---o---o subsystem
658 If 'subsystem' is rebased against 'master', the following happens:
661 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
663 o---o---o---o---o o'--o'--o'--o'--o' subsystem
668 If you now continue development as usual, and eventually merge 'topic'
669 to 'subsystem', the commits from 'subsystem' will remain duplicated forever:
672 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
674 o---o---o---o---o o'--o'--o'--o'--o'--M subsystem
676 *---*---*-..........-*--* topic
679 Such duplicates are generally frowned upon because they clutter up
680 history, making it harder to follow. To clean things up, you need to
681 transplant the commits on 'topic' to the new 'subsystem' tip, i.e.,
682 rebase 'topic'. This becomes a ripple effect: anyone downstream from
683 'topic' is forced to rebase too, and so on!
685 There are two kinds of fixes, discussed in the following subsections:
687 Easy case: The changes are literally the same.::
689 This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase was a simple rebase and
692 Hard case: The changes are not the same.::
694 This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase had conflicts, or used
695 `--interactive` to omit, edit, squash, or fixup commits; or
696 if the upstream used one of `commit --amend`, `reset`, or
703 Only works if the changes (patch IDs based on the diff contents) on
704 'subsystem' are literally the same before and after the rebase
707 In that case, the fix is easy because 'git rebase' knows to skip
708 changes that are already present in the new upstream. So if you say
709 (assuming you're on 'topic')
711 $ git rebase subsystem
713 you will end up with the fixed history
715 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
717 o'--o'--o'--o'--o' subsystem
726 Things get more complicated if the 'subsystem' changes do not exactly
727 correspond to the ones before the rebase.
729 NOTE: While an "easy case recovery" sometimes appears to be successful
730 even in the hard case, it may have unintended consequences. For
731 example, a commit that was removed via `git rebase
732 --interactive` will be **resurrected**!
734 The idea is to manually tell 'git rebase' "where the old 'subsystem'
735 ended and your 'topic' began", that is, what the old merge-base
736 between them was. You will have to find a way to name the last commit
737 of the old 'subsystem', for example:
739 * With the 'subsystem' reflog: after 'git fetch', the old tip of
740 'subsystem' is at `subsystem@{1}`. Subsequent fetches will
741 increase the number. (See linkgit:git-reflog[1].)
743 * Relative to the tip of 'topic': knowing that your 'topic' has three
744 commits, the old tip of 'subsystem' must be `topic~3`.
746 You can then transplant the old `subsystem..topic` to the new tip by
747 saying (for the reflog case, and assuming you are on 'topic' already):
749 $ git rebase --onto subsystem subsystem@{1}
752 The ripple effect of a "hard case" recovery is especially bad:
753 'everyone' downstream from 'topic' will now have to perform a "hard
758 The todo list presented by `--preserve-merges --interactive` does not
759 represent the topology of the revision graph. Editing commits and
760 rewording their commit messages should work fine, but attempts to
761 reorder commits tend to produce counterintuitive results.
763 For example, an attempt to rearrange
765 1 --- 2 --- 3 --- 4 --- 5
769 1 --- 2 --- 4 --- 3 --- 5
771 by moving the "pick 4" line will result in the following history:
780 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite