Rebase

ELI5 — The Vibe Check

Rebase is like rewriting history. Instead of merging branches (which creates a merge commit), rebase takes your changes and replays them on top of another branch, making it look like you started from the latest code all along. Cleaner history, but trickier.

Real Talk

Rebase moves or combines a sequence of commits to a new base commit. It rewrites commit history to create a linear sequence. Interactive rebase (-i) allows squashing, editing, or reordering commits. Never rebase commits that have been shared publicly.

Show Me The Code

git checkout feature
git rebase main
# Interactive rebase:
git rebase -i HEAD~3

When You'll Hear This

"Rebase your branch on main before merging." / "Don't rebase shared branches!"