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.
216 rebase.instructionFormat::
217 Custom commit list format to use during an '--interactive' rebase.
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.
290 --gpg-sign[=<keyid>]::
295 Be quiet. Implies --no-stat.
299 Be verbose. Implies --stat.
302 Show a diffstat of what changed upstream since the last rebase. The
303 diffstat is also controlled by the configuration option rebase.stat.
307 Do not show a diffstat as part of the rebase process.
310 This option bypasses the pre-rebase hook. See also linkgit:githooks[5].
313 Allows the pre-rebase hook to run, which is the default. This option can
314 be used to override --no-verify. See also linkgit:githooks[5].
317 Ensure at least <n> lines of surrounding context match before
318 and after each change. When fewer lines of surrounding
319 context exist they all must match. By default no context is
324 Force a rebase even if the current branch is up-to-date and
325 the command without `--force` would return without doing anything.
327 You may find this (or --no-ff with an interactive rebase) helpful after
328 reverting a topic branch merge, as this option recreates the topic branch with
329 fresh commits so it can be remerged successfully without needing to "revert
330 the reversion" (see the
331 link:howto/revert-a-faulty-merge.html[revert-a-faulty-merge How-To] for details).
335 Use reflog to find a better common ancestor between <upstream>
336 and <branch> when calculating which commits have been
337 introduced by <branch>.
339 When --fork-point is active, 'fork_point' will be used instead of
340 <upstream> to calculate the set of commits to rebase, where
341 'fork_point' is the result of `git merge-base --fork-point <upstream>
342 <branch>` command (see linkgit:git-merge-base[1]). If 'fork_point'
343 ends up being empty, the <upstream> will be used as a fallback.
345 If either <upstream> or --root is given on the command line, then the
346 default is `--no-fork-point`, otherwise the default is `--fork-point`.
348 --ignore-whitespace::
349 --whitespace=<option>::
350 These flag are passed to the 'git apply' program
351 (see linkgit:git-apply[1]) that applies the patch.
352 Incompatible with the --interactive option.
354 --committer-date-is-author-date::
356 These flags are passed to 'git am' to easily change the dates
357 of the rebased commits (see linkgit:git-am[1]).
358 Incompatible with the --interactive option.
362 Make a list of the commits which are about to be rebased. Let the
363 user edit that list before rebasing. This mode can also be used to
364 split commits (see SPLITTING COMMITS below).
366 The commit list format can be changed by setting the configuration option
367 rebase.instructionFormat. A customized instruction format will automatically
368 have the long commit hash prepended to the format.
372 Recreate merge commits instead of flattening the history by replaying
373 commits a merge commit introduces. Merge conflict resolutions or manual
374 amendments to merge commits are not preserved.
376 This uses the `--interactive` machinery internally, but combining it
377 with the `--interactive` option explicitly is generally not a good
378 idea unless you know what you are doing (see BUGS below).
382 Append "exec <cmd>" after each line creating a commit in the
383 final history. <cmd> will be interpreted as one or more shell
386 This option can only be used with the `--interactive` option
387 (see INTERACTIVE MODE below).
389 You may execute several commands by either using one instance of `--exec`
390 with several commands:
392 git rebase -i --exec "cmd1 && cmd2 && ..."
394 or by giving more than one `--exec`:
396 git rebase -i --exec "cmd1" --exec "cmd2" --exec ...
398 If `--autosquash` is used, "exec" lines will not be appended for
399 the intermediate commits, and will only appear at the end of each
403 Rebase all commits reachable from <branch>, instead of
404 limiting them with an <upstream>. This allows you to rebase
405 the root commit(s) on a branch. When used with --onto, it
406 will skip changes already contained in <newbase> (instead of
407 <upstream>) whereas without --onto it will operate on every change.
408 When used together with both --onto and --preserve-merges,
409 'all' root commits will be rewritten to have <newbase> as parent
414 When the commit log message begins with "squash! ..." (or
415 "fixup! ..."), and there is a commit whose title begins with
416 the same ..., automatically modify the todo list of rebase -i
417 so that the commit marked for squashing comes right after the
418 commit to be modified, and change the action of the moved
419 commit from `pick` to `squash` (or `fixup`). Ignores subsequent
420 "fixup! " or "squash! " after the first, in case you referred to an
421 earlier fixup/squash with `git commit --fixup/--squash`.
423 This option is only valid when the '--interactive' option is used.
425 If the '--autosquash' option is enabled by default using the
426 configuration variable `rebase.autoSquash`, this option can be
427 used to override and disable this setting.
430 Automatically create a temporary stash before the operation
431 begins, and apply it after the operation ends. This means
432 that you can run rebase on a dirty worktree. However, use
433 with care: the final stash application after a successful
434 rebase might result in non-trivial conflicts.
437 With --interactive, cherry-pick all rebased commits instead of
438 fast-forwarding over the unchanged ones. This ensures that the
439 entire history of the rebased branch is composed of new commits.
441 Without --interactive, this is a synonym for --force-rebase.
443 You may find this helpful after reverting a topic branch merge, as this option
444 recreates the topic branch with fresh commits so it can be remerged
445 successfully without needing to "revert the reversion" (see the
446 link:howto/revert-a-faulty-merge.html[revert-a-faulty-merge How-To] for details).
448 include::merge-strategies.txt[]
453 You should understand the implications of using 'git rebase' on a
454 repository that you share. See also RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
457 When the git-rebase command is run, it will first execute a "pre-rebase"
458 hook if one exists. You can use this hook to do sanity checks and
459 reject the rebase if it isn't appropriate. Please see the template
460 pre-rebase hook script for an example.
462 Upon completion, <branch> will be the current branch.
467 Rebasing interactively means that you have a chance to edit the commits
468 which are rebased. You can reorder the commits, and you can
469 remove them (weeding out bad or otherwise unwanted patches).
471 The interactive mode is meant for this type of workflow:
473 1. have a wonderful idea
475 3. prepare a series for submission
478 where point 2. consists of several instances of
482 1. finish something worthy of a commit
487 1. realize that something does not work
491 Sometimes the thing fixed in b.2. cannot be amended to the not-quite
492 perfect commit it fixes, because that commit is buried deeply in a
493 patch series. That is exactly what interactive rebase is for: use it
494 after plenty of "a"s and "b"s, by rearranging and editing
495 commits, and squashing multiple commits into one.
497 Start it with the last commit you want to retain as-is:
499 git rebase -i <after-this-commit>
501 An editor will be fired up with all the commits in your current branch
502 (ignoring merge commits), which come after the given commit. You can
503 reorder the commits in this list to your heart's content, and you can
504 remove them. The list looks more or less like this:
506 -------------------------------------------
507 pick deadbee The oneline of this commit
508 pick fa1afe1 The oneline of the next commit
510 -------------------------------------------
512 The oneline descriptions are purely for your pleasure; 'git rebase' will
513 not look at them but at the commit names ("deadbee" and "fa1afe1" in this
514 example), so do not delete or edit the names.
516 By replacing the command "pick" with the command "edit", you can tell
517 'git rebase' to stop after applying that commit, so that you can edit
518 the files and/or the commit message, amend the commit, and continue
521 If you just want to edit the commit message for a commit, replace the
522 command "pick" with the command "reword".
524 If you want to fold two or more commits into one, replace the command
525 "pick" for the second and subsequent commits with "squash" or "fixup".
526 If the commits had different authors, the folded commit will be
527 attributed to the author of the first commit. The suggested commit
528 message for the folded commit is the concatenation of the commit
529 messages of the first commit and of those with the "squash" command,
530 but omits the commit messages of commits with the "fixup" command.
532 'git rebase' will stop when "pick" has been replaced with "edit" or
533 when a command fails due to merge errors. When you are done editing
534 and/or resolving conflicts you can continue with `git rebase --continue`.
536 For example, if you want to reorder the last 5 commits, such that what
537 was HEAD~4 becomes the new HEAD. To achieve that, you would call
538 'git rebase' like this:
540 ----------------------
541 $ git rebase -i HEAD~5
542 ----------------------
544 And move the first patch to the end of the list.
546 You might want to preserve merges, if you have a history like this:
556 Suppose you want to rebase the side branch starting at "A" to "Q". Make
557 sure that the current HEAD is "B", and call
559 -----------------------------
560 $ git rebase -i -p --onto Q O
561 -----------------------------
563 Reordering and editing commits usually creates untested intermediate
564 steps. You may want to check that your history editing did not break
565 anything by running a test, or at least recompiling at intermediate
566 points in history by using the "exec" command (shortcut "x"). You may
567 do so by creating a todo list like this one:
569 -------------------------------------------
570 pick deadbee Implement feature XXX
571 fixup f1a5c00 Fix to feature XXX
573 pick c0ffeee The oneline of the next commit
574 edit deadbab The oneline of the commit after
575 exec cd subdir; make test
577 -------------------------------------------
579 The interactive rebase will stop when a command fails (i.e. exits with
580 non-0 status) to give you an opportunity to fix the problem. You can
581 continue with `git rebase --continue`.
583 The "exec" command launches the command in a shell (the one specified
584 in `$SHELL`, or the default shell if `$SHELL` is not set), so you can
585 use shell features (like "cd", ">", ";" ...). The command is run from
586 the root of the working tree.
588 ----------------------------------
589 $ git rebase -i --exec "make test"
590 ----------------------------------
592 This command lets you check that intermediate commits are compilable.
593 The todo list becomes like that:
609 In interactive mode, you can mark commits with the action "edit". However,
610 this does not necessarily mean that 'git rebase' expects the result of this
611 edit to be exactly one commit. Indeed, you can undo the commit, or you can
612 add other commits. This can be used to split a commit into two:
614 - Start an interactive rebase with `git rebase -i <commit>^`, where
615 <commit> is the commit you want to split. In fact, any commit range
616 will do, as long as it contains that commit.
618 - Mark the commit you want to split with the action "edit".
620 - When it comes to editing that commit, execute `git reset HEAD^`. The
621 effect is that the HEAD is rewound by one, and the index follows suit.
622 However, the working tree stays the same.
624 - Now add the changes to the index that you want to have in the first
625 commit. You can use `git add` (possibly interactively) or
626 'git gui' (or both) to do that.
628 - Commit the now-current index with whatever commit message is appropriate
631 - Repeat the last two steps until your working tree is clean.
633 - Continue the rebase with `git rebase --continue`.
635 If you are not absolutely sure that the intermediate revisions are
636 consistent (they compile, pass the testsuite, etc.) you should use
637 'git stash' to stash away the not-yet-committed changes
638 after each commit, test, and amend the commit if fixes are necessary.
641 RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
642 -------------------------------
644 Rebasing (or any other form of rewriting) a branch that others have
645 based work on is a bad idea: anyone downstream of it is forced to
646 manually fix their history. This section explains how to do the fix
647 from the downstream's point of view. The real fix, however, would be
648 to avoid rebasing the upstream in the first place.
650 To illustrate, suppose you are in a situation where someone develops a
651 'subsystem' branch, and you are working on a 'topic' that is dependent
652 on this 'subsystem'. You might end up with a history like the
656 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
658 o---o---o---o---o subsystem
663 If 'subsystem' is rebased against 'master', the following happens:
666 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
668 o---o---o---o---o o'--o'--o'--o'--o' subsystem
673 If you now continue development as usual, and eventually merge 'topic'
674 to 'subsystem', the commits from 'subsystem' will remain duplicated forever:
677 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
679 o---o---o---o---o o'--o'--o'--o'--o'--M subsystem
681 *---*---*-..........-*--* topic
684 Such duplicates are generally frowned upon because they clutter up
685 history, making it harder to follow. To clean things up, you need to
686 transplant the commits on 'topic' to the new 'subsystem' tip, i.e.,
687 rebase 'topic'. This becomes a ripple effect: anyone downstream from
688 'topic' is forced to rebase too, and so on!
690 There are two kinds of fixes, discussed in the following subsections:
692 Easy case: The changes are literally the same.::
694 This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase was a simple rebase and
697 Hard case: The changes are not the same.::
699 This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase had conflicts, or used
700 `--interactive` to omit, edit, squash, or fixup commits; or
701 if the upstream used one of `commit --amend`, `reset`, or
708 Only works if the changes (patch IDs based on the diff contents) on
709 'subsystem' are literally the same before and after the rebase
712 In that case, the fix is easy because 'git rebase' knows to skip
713 changes that are already present in the new upstream. So if you say
714 (assuming you're on 'topic')
716 $ git rebase subsystem
718 you will end up with the fixed history
720 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
722 o'--o'--o'--o'--o' subsystem
731 Things get more complicated if the 'subsystem' changes do not exactly
732 correspond to the ones before the rebase.
734 NOTE: While an "easy case recovery" sometimes appears to be successful
735 even in the hard case, it may have unintended consequences. For
736 example, a commit that was removed via `git rebase
737 --interactive` will be **resurrected**!
739 The idea is to manually tell 'git rebase' "where the old 'subsystem'
740 ended and your 'topic' began", that is, what the old merge-base
741 between them was. You will have to find a way to name the last commit
742 of the old 'subsystem', for example:
744 * With the 'subsystem' reflog: after 'git fetch', the old tip of
745 'subsystem' is at `subsystem@{1}`. Subsequent fetches will
746 increase the number. (See linkgit:git-reflog[1].)
748 * Relative to the tip of 'topic': knowing that your 'topic' has three
749 commits, the old tip of 'subsystem' must be `topic~3`.
751 You can then transplant the old `subsystem..topic` to the new tip by
752 saying (for the reflog case, and assuming you are on 'topic' already):
754 $ git rebase --onto subsystem subsystem@{1}
757 The ripple effect of a "hard case" recovery is especially bad:
758 'everyone' downstream from 'topic' will now have to perform a "hard
763 The todo list presented by `--preserve-merges --interactive` does not
764 represent the topology of the revision graph. Editing commits and
765 rewording their commit messages should work fine, but attempts to
766 reorder commits tend to produce counterintuitive results.
768 For example, an attempt to rearrange
770 1 --- 2 --- 3 --- 4 --- 5
774 1 --- 2 --- 4 --- 3 --- 5
776 by moving the "pick 4" line will result in the following history:
785 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite