Library › Book 17 › Rebase vs. Merge -- Two Philosophies, One Codebase
Rebase vs. Merge -- Two Philosophies, One Codebase
2.1🔒Two Ways to Integrate ChangesBoth merge and rebase integrate changes from one branch into another, but they produce fundamentally different commit histories…
2.2🔒Merge: Preserving the Full StoryA merge creates a new "merge commit" that combines the histories of two branches. The full branch history is preserved in the graph.
2.3🔒Rebase: Rewriting for a Linear StoryA rebase replays your commits on top of the target branch, creating a linear history as if you had written your code after the latest…
2.4🔒Side-by-Side ComparisonHere is the same integration shown both ways:
2.5🔒When to Use EachNever rebase commits that have been pushed to a shared branch and that others may have based work on.
2.6🔒Resolving Conflicts During RebaseWhen rebasing, Git replays each commit one by one. If a commit conflicts with the target branch, Git pauses and asks you to resolve it.
2.7🔒Interactive Rebase: Cleaning Up Before a PRInteractive rebase lets you rewrite, combine, reorder, or drop commits before sharing them. It is one of the most powerful tools in Git's…
2.8🔒Squash Merge: The Best of Both WorldsMany teams use squash merge when completing PRs. A squash merge combines all PR commits into a single commit on main.
2.9🔒Practical Daily WorkflowHere is the daily workflow that keeps your branches clean and your team happy:
2.10🔒Interactive Exercise: Rebase Practice Lab
2.11🔒Exercises1. Create a feature branch with 3 commits. Merge it into main and observe the merge commit in git log --graph. 2. Reset main to before the…
2.12🔒Career Translation- Established team-wide rebase-and-squash-merge workflow that reduced merge commit noise by 90% and improved git bisect effectiveness for…
2.13🔒Q&AInterview Depth CheckPrompt: A junior developer on your team rebased a shared feature branch that three other engineers had already pulled and were building on…