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. If you are currently not on any
26 branch or if the current branch does not have a configured upstream,
27 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
32 `git log HEAD`, if --root is specified).
34 The current branch is reset to <upstream>, or <newbase> if the
35 --onto option was supplied. This has the exact same effect as
36 `git reset --hard <upstream>` (or <newbase>). ORIG_HEAD is set
37 to point at the tip of the branch before the reset.
39 The commits that were previously saved into the temporary area are
40 then reapplied to the current branch, one by one, in order. Note that
41 any commits in HEAD which introduce the same textual changes as a commit
42 in HEAD..<upstream> are omitted (i.e., a patch already accepted upstream
43 with a different commit message or timestamp will be skipped).
45 It is possible that a merge failure will prevent this process from being
46 completely automatic. You will have to resolve any such merge failure
47 and run `git rebase --continue`. Another option is to bypass the commit
48 that caused the merge failure with `git rebase --skip`. To check out the
49 original <branch> and remove the .git/rebase-apply working files, use the
50 command `git rebase --abort` instead.
52 Assume the following history exists and the current branch is "topic":
60 From this point, the result of either of the following commands:
64 git rebase master topic
74 *NOTE:* The latter form is just a short-hand of `git checkout topic`
75 followed by `git rebase master`. When rebase exits `topic` will
76 remain the checked-out branch.
78 If the upstream branch already contains a change you have made (e.g.,
79 because you mailed a patch which was applied upstream), then that commit
80 will be skipped. For example, running `git rebase master` on the
81 following history (in which A' and A introduce the same set of changes,
82 but have different committer information):
98 Here is how you would transplant a topic branch based on one
99 branch to another, to pretend that you forked the topic branch
100 from the latter branch, using `rebase --onto`.
102 First let's assume your 'topic' is based on branch 'next'.
103 For example, a feature developed in 'topic' depends on some
104 functionality which is found in 'next'.
107 o---o---o---o---o master
109 o---o---o---o---o next
114 We want to make 'topic' forked from branch 'master'; for example,
115 because the functionality on which 'topic' depends was merged into the
116 more stable 'master' branch. We want our tree to look like this:
119 o---o---o---o---o master
123 o---o---o---o---o next
126 We can get this using the following command:
128 git rebase --onto master next topic
131 Another example of --onto option is to rebase part of a
132 branch. If we have the following situation:
144 git rebase --onto master topicA topicB
156 This is useful when topicB does not depend on topicA.
158 A range of commits could also be removed with rebase. If we have
159 the following situation:
162 E---F---G---H---I---J topicA
167 git rebase --onto topicA~5 topicA~3 topicA
169 would result in the removal of commits F and G:
172 E---H'---I'---J' topicA
175 This is useful if F and G were flawed in some way, or should not be
176 part of topicA. Note that the argument to --onto and the <upstream>
177 parameter can be any valid commit-ish.
179 In case of conflict, 'git rebase' will stop at the first problematic commit
180 and leave conflict markers in the tree. You can use 'git diff' to locate
181 the markers (<<<<<<) and make edits to resolve the conflict. For each
182 file you edit, you need to tell Git that the conflict has been resolved,
183 typically this would be done with
189 After resolving the conflict manually and updating the index with the
190 desired resolution, you can continue the rebasing process with
193 git rebase --continue
196 Alternatively, you can undo the 'git rebase' with
205 Whether to show a diffstat of what changed upstream since the last
206 rebase. False by default.
209 If set to true enable '--autosquash' option by default.
212 If set to true enable '--autostash' option by default.
217 Starting point at which to create the new commits. If the
218 --onto option is not specified, the starting point is
219 <upstream>. May be any valid commit, and not just an
220 existing branch name.
222 As a special case, you may use "A\...B" as a shortcut for the
223 merge base of A and B if there is exactly one merge base. You can
224 leave out at most one of A and B, in which case it defaults to HEAD.
227 Upstream branch to compare against. May be any valid commit,
228 not just an existing branch name. Defaults to the configured
229 upstream for the current branch.
232 Working branch; defaults to HEAD.
235 Restart the rebasing process after having resolved a merge conflict.
238 Abort the rebase operation and reset HEAD to the original
239 branch. If <branch> was provided when the rebase operation was
240 started, then HEAD will be reset to <branch>. Otherwise HEAD
241 will be reset to where it was when the rebase operation was
245 Keep the commits that do not change anything from its
246 parents in the result.
249 Restart the rebasing process by skipping the current patch.
252 Edit the todo list during an interactive rebase.
256 Use merging strategies to rebase. When the recursive (default) merge
257 strategy is used, this allows rebase to be aware of renames on the
260 Note that a rebase merge works by replaying each commit from the working
261 branch on top of the <upstream> branch. Because of this, when a merge
262 conflict happens, the side reported as 'ours' is the so-far rebased
263 series, starting with <upstream>, and 'theirs' is the working branch. In
264 other words, the sides are swapped.
267 --strategy=<strategy>::
268 Use the given merge strategy.
269 If there is no `-s` option 'git merge-recursive' is used
270 instead. This implies --merge.
272 Because 'git rebase' replays each commit from the working branch
273 on top of the <upstream> branch using the given strategy, using
274 the 'ours' strategy simply discards all patches from the <branch>,
275 which makes little sense.
277 -X <strategy-option>::
278 --strategy-option=<strategy-option>::
279 Pass the <strategy-option> through to the merge strategy.
280 This implies `--merge` and, if no strategy has been
281 specified, `-s recursive`. Note the reversal of 'ours' and
282 'theirs' as noted above for the `-m` option.
285 --gpg-sign[=<keyid>]::
290 Be quiet. Implies --no-stat.
294 Be verbose. Implies --stat.
297 Show a diffstat of what changed upstream since the last rebase. The
298 diffstat is also controlled by the configuration option rebase.stat.
302 Do not show a diffstat as part of the rebase process.
305 This option bypasses the pre-rebase hook. See also linkgit:githooks[5].
308 Allows the pre-rebase hook to run, which is the default. This option can
309 be used to override --no-verify. See also linkgit:githooks[5].
312 Ensure at least <n> lines of surrounding context match before
313 and after each change. When fewer lines of surrounding
314 context exist they all must match. By default no context is
319 Force the rebase even if the current branch is a descendant
320 of the commit you are rebasing onto. Normally non-interactive rebase will
321 exit with the message "Current branch is up to date" in such a
323 Incompatible with the --interactive option.
325 You may find this (or --no-ff with an interactive rebase) helpful after
326 reverting a topic branch merge, as this option recreates the topic branch with
327 fresh commits so it can be remerged successfully without needing to "revert
328 the reversion" (see the
329 link:howto/revert-a-faulty-merge.html[revert-a-faulty-merge How-To] for details).
333 Use 'git merge-base --fork-point' to find a better common ancestor
334 between `upstream` and `branch` when calculating which commits have
335 have been introduced by `branch` (see linkgit:git-merge-base[1]).
337 If no non-option arguments are given on the command line, then the default is
338 `--fork-point @{u}` otherwise the `upstream` argument is interpreted literally
339 unless the `--fork-point` option is specified.
341 --ignore-whitespace::
342 --whitespace=<option>::
343 These flag are passed to the 'git apply' program
344 (see linkgit:git-apply[1]) that applies the patch.
345 Incompatible with the --interactive option.
347 --committer-date-is-author-date::
349 These flags are passed to 'git am' to easily change the dates
350 of the rebased commits (see linkgit:git-am[1]).
351 Incompatible with the --interactive option.
355 Make a list of the commits which are about to be rebased. Let the
356 user edit that list before rebasing. This mode can also be used to
357 split commits (see SPLITTING COMMITS below).
361 Recreate merge commits instead of flattening the history by replaying
362 commits a merge commit introduces. Merge conflict resolutions or manual
363 amendments to merge commits are not preserved.
365 This uses the `--interactive` machinery internally, but combining it
366 with the `--interactive` option explicitly is generally not a good
367 idea unless you know what you are doing (see BUGS below).
371 Append "exec <cmd>" after each line creating a commit in the
372 final history. <cmd> will be interpreted as one or more shell
375 This option can only be used with the `--interactive` option
376 (see INTERACTIVE MODE below).
378 You may execute several commands by either using one instance of `--exec`
379 with several commands:
381 git rebase -i --exec "cmd1 && cmd2 && ..."
383 or by giving more than one `--exec`:
385 git rebase -i --exec "cmd1" --exec "cmd2" --exec ...
387 If `--autosquash` is used, "exec" lines will not be appended for
388 the intermediate commits, and will only appear at the end of each
392 Rebase all commits reachable from <branch>, instead of
393 limiting them with an <upstream>. This allows you to rebase
394 the root commit(s) on a branch. When used with --onto, it
395 will skip changes already contained in <newbase> (instead of
396 <upstream>) whereas without --onto it will operate on every change.
397 When used together with both --onto and --preserve-merges,
398 'all' root commits will be rewritten to have <newbase> as parent
403 When the commit log message begins with "squash! ..." (or
404 "fixup! ..."), and there is a commit whose title begins with
405 the same ..., automatically modify the todo list of rebase -i
406 so that the commit marked for squashing comes right after the
407 commit to be modified, and change the action of the moved
408 commit from `pick` to `squash` (or `fixup`). Ignores subsequent
409 "fixup! " or "squash! " after the first, in case you referred to an
410 earlier fixup/squash with `git commit --fixup/--squash`.
412 This option is only valid when the '--interactive' option is used.
414 If the '--autosquash' option is enabled by default using the
415 configuration variable `rebase.autosquash`, this option can be
416 used to override and disable this setting.
419 Automatically create a temporary stash before the operation
420 begins, and apply it after the operation ends. This means
421 that you can run rebase on a dirty worktree. However, use
422 with care: the final stash application after a successful
423 rebase might result in non-trivial conflicts.
426 With --interactive, cherry-pick all rebased commits instead of
427 fast-forwarding over the unchanged ones. This ensures that the
428 entire history of the rebased branch is composed of new commits.
430 Without --interactive, this is a synonym for --force-rebase.
432 You may find this helpful after reverting a topic branch merge, as this option
433 recreates the topic branch with fresh commits so it can be remerged
434 successfully without needing to "revert the reversion" (see the
435 link:howto/revert-a-faulty-merge.html[revert-a-faulty-merge How-To] for details).
437 include::merge-strategies.txt[]
442 You should understand the implications of using 'git rebase' on a
443 repository that you share. See also RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
446 When the git-rebase command is run, it will first execute a "pre-rebase"
447 hook if one exists. You can use this hook to do sanity checks and
448 reject the rebase if it isn't appropriate. Please see the template
449 pre-rebase hook script for an example.
451 Upon completion, <branch> will be the current branch.
456 Rebasing interactively means that you have a chance to edit the commits
457 which are rebased. You can reorder the commits, and you can
458 remove them (weeding out bad or otherwise unwanted patches).
460 The interactive mode is meant for this type of workflow:
462 1. have a wonderful idea
464 3. prepare a series for submission
467 where point 2. consists of several instances of
471 1. finish something worthy of a commit
476 1. realize that something does not work
480 Sometimes the thing fixed in b.2. cannot be amended to the not-quite
481 perfect commit it fixes, because that commit is buried deeply in a
482 patch series. That is exactly what interactive rebase is for: use it
483 after plenty of "a"s and "b"s, by rearranging and editing
484 commits, and squashing multiple commits into one.
486 Start it with the last commit you want to retain as-is:
488 git rebase -i <after-this-commit>
490 An editor will be fired up with all the commits in your current branch
491 (ignoring merge commits), which come after the given commit. You can
492 reorder the commits in this list to your heart's content, and you can
493 remove them. The list looks more or less like this:
495 -------------------------------------------
496 pick deadbee The oneline of this commit
497 pick fa1afe1 The oneline of the next commit
499 -------------------------------------------
501 The oneline descriptions are purely for your pleasure; 'git rebase' will
502 not look at them but at the commit names ("deadbee" and "fa1afe1" in this
503 example), so do not delete or edit the names.
505 By replacing the command "pick" with the command "edit", you can tell
506 'git rebase' to stop after applying that commit, so that you can edit
507 the files and/or the commit message, amend the commit, and continue
510 If you just want to edit the commit message for a commit, replace the
511 command "pick" with the command "reword".
513 If you want to fold two or more commits into one, replace the command
514 "pick" for the second and subsequent commits with "squash" or "fixup".
515 If the commits had different authors, the folded commit will be
516 attributed to the author of the first commit. The suggested commit
517 message for the folded commit is the concatenation of the commit
518 messages of the first commit and of those with the "squash" command,
519 but omits the commit messages of commits with the "fixup" command.
521 'git rebase' will stop when "pick" has been replaced with "edit" or
522 when a command fails due to merge errors. When you are done editing
523 and/or resolving conflicts you can continue with `git rebase --continue`.
525 For example, if you want to reorder the last 5 commits, such that what
526 was HEAD~4 becomes the new HEAD. To achieve that, you would call
527 'git rebase' like this:
529 ----------------------
530 $ git rebase -i HEAD~5
531 ----------------------
533 And move the first patch to the end of the list.
535 You might want to preserve merges, if you have a history like this:
545 Suppose you want to rebase the side branch starting at "A" to "Q". Make
546 sure that the current HEAD is "B", and call
548 -----------------------------
549 $ git rebase -i -p --onto Q O
550 -----------------------------
552 Reordering and editing commits usually creates untested intermediate
553 steps. You may want to check that your history editing did not break
554 anything by running a test, or at least recompiling at intermediate
555 points in history by using the "exec" command (shortcut "x"). You may
556 do so by creating a todo list like this one:
558 -------------------------------------------
559 pick deadbee Implement feature XXX
560 fixup f1a5c00 Fix to feature XXX
562 pick c0ffeee The oneline of the next commit
563 edit deadbab The oneline of the commit after
564 exec cd subdir; make test
566 -------------------------------------------
568 The interactive rebase will stop when a command fails (i.e. exits with
569 non-0 status) to give you an opportunity to fix the problem. You can
570 continue with `git rebase --continue`.
572 The "exec" command launches the command in a shell (the one specified
573 in `$SHELL`, or the default shell if `$SHELL` is not set), so you can
574 use shell features (like "cd", ">", ";" ...). The command is run from
575 the root of the working tree.
577 ----------------------------------
578 $ git rebase -i --exec "make test"
579 ----------------------------------
581 This command lets you check that intermediate commits are compilable.
582 The todo list becomes like that:
598 In interactive mode, you can mark commits with the action "edit". However,
599 this does not necessarily mean that 'git rebase' expects the result of this
600 edit to be exactly one commit. Indeed, you can undo the commit, or you can
601 add other commits. This can be used to split a commit into two:
603 - Start an interactive rebase with `git rebase -i <commit>^`, where
604 <commit> is the commit you want to split. In fact, any commit range
605 will do, as long as it contains that commit.
607 - Mark the commit you want to split with the action "edit".
609 - When it comes to editing that commit, execute `git reset HEAD^`. The
610 effect is that the HEAD is rewound by one, and the index follows suit.
611 However, the working tree stays the same.
613 - Now add the changes to the index that you want to have in the first
614 commit. You can use `git add` (possibly interactively) or
615 'git gui' (or both) to do that.
617 - Commit the now-current index with whatever commit message is appropriate
620 - Repeat the last two steps until your working tree is clean.
622 - Continue the rebase with `git rebase --continue`.
624 If you are not absolutely sure that the intermediate revisions are
625 consistent (they compile, pass the testsuite, etc.) you should use
626 'git stash' to stash away the not-yet-committed changes
627 after each commit, test, and amend the commit if fixes are necessary.
630 RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
631 -------------------------------
633 Rebasing (or any other form of rewriting) a branch that others have
634 based work on is a bad idea: anyone downstream of it is forced to
635 manually fix their history. This section explains how to do the fix
636 from the downstream's point of view. The real fix, however, would be
637 to avoid rebasing the upstream in the first place.
639 To illustrate, suppose you are in a situation where someone develops a
640 'subsystem' branch, and you are working on a 'topic' that is dependent
641 on this 'subsystem'. You might end up with a history like the
645 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
647 o---o---o---o---o subsystem
652 If 'subsystem' is rebased against 'master', the following happens:
655 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
657 o---o---o---o---o o'--o'--o'--o'--o' subsystem
662 If you now continue development as usual, and eventually merge 'topic'
663 to 'subsystem', the commits from 'subsystem' will remain duplicated forever:
666 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
668 o---o---o---o---o o'--o'--o'--o'--o'--M subsystem
670 *---*---*-..........-*--* topic
673 Such duplicates are generally frowned upon because they clutter up
674 history, making it harder to follow. To clean things up, you need to
675 transplant the commits on 'topic' to the new 'subsystem' tip, i.e.,
676 rebase 'topic'. This becomes a ripple effect: anyone downstream from
677 'topic' is forced to rebase too, and so on!
679 There are two kinds of fixes, discussed in the following subsections:
681 Easy case: The changes are literally the same.::
683 This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase was a simple rebase and
686 Hard case: The changes are not the same.::
688 This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase had conflicts, or used
689 `--interactive` to omit, edit, squash, or fixup commits; or
690 if the upstream used one of `commit --amend`, `reset`, or
697 Only works if the changes (patch IDs based on the diff contents) on
698 'subsystem' are literally the same before and after the rebase
701 In that case, the fix is easy because 'git rebase' knows to skip
702 changes that are already present in the new upstream. So if you say
703 (assuming you're on 'topic')
705 $ git rebase subsystem
707 you will end up with the fixed history
709 o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
711 o'--o'--o'--o'--o' subsystem
720 Things get more complicated if the 'subsystem' changes do not exactly
721 correspond to the ones before the rebase.
723 NOTE: While an "easy case recovery" sometimes appears to be successful
724 even in the hard case, it may have unintended consequences. For
725 example, a commit that was removed via `git rebase
726 --interactive` will be **resurrected**!
728 The idea is to manually tell 'git rebase' "where the old 'subsystem'
729 ended and your 'topic' began", that is, what the old merge-base
730 between them was. You will have to find a way to name the last commit
731 of the old 'subsystem', for example:
733 * With the 'subsystem' reflog: after 'git fetch', the old tip of
734 'subsystem' is at `subsystem@{1}`. Subsequent fetches will
735 increase the number. (See linkgit:git-reflog[1].)
737 * Relative to the tip of 'topic': knowing that your 'topic' has three
738 commits, the old tip of 'subsystem' must be `topic~3`.
740 You can then transplant the old `subsystem..topic` to the new tip by
741 saying (for the reflog case, and assuming you are on 'topic' already):
743 $ git rebase --onto subsystem subsystem@{1}
746 The ripple effect of a "hard case" recovery is especially bad:
747 'everyone' downstream from 'topic' will now have to perform a "hard
752 The todo list presented by `--preserve-merges --interactive` does not
753 represent the topology of the revision graph. Editing commits and
754 rewording their commit messages should work fine, but attempts to
755 reorder commits tend to produce counterintuitive results.
757 For example, an attempt to rearrange
759 1 --- 2 --- 3 --- 4 --- 5
763 1 --- 2 --- 4 --- 3 --- 5
765 by moving the "pick 4" line will result in the following history:
774 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite