1git-rebase(1) 2============= 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-rebase - Forward-port local commits to the updated upstream head 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'git rebase' [-i | --interactive] [-v | --verbose] [-m | --merge] 12 [-s <strategy> | --strategy=<strategy>] 13 [-C<n>] [ --whitespace=<option>] [-p | --preserve-merges] 14 [--onto <newbase>] <upstream> [<branch>] 15'git rebase' --continue | --skip | --abort 16 17DESCRIPTION 18----------- 19If <branch> is specified, 'git-rebase' will perform an automatic 20`git checkout <branch>` before doing anything else. Otherwise 21it remains on the current branch. 22 23All changes made by commits in the current branch but that are not 24in <upstream> are saved to a temporary area. This is the same set 25of commits that would be shown by `git log <upstream>..HEAD`. 26 27The current branch is reset to <upstream>, or <newbase> if the 28--onto option was supplied. This has the exact same effect as 29`git reset --hard <upstream>` (or <newbase>). ORIG_HEAD is set 30to point at the tip of the branch before the reset. 31 32The commits that were previously saved into the temporary area are 33then reapplied to the current branch, one by one, in order. Note that 34any commits in HEAD which introduce the same textual changes as a commit 35in HEAD..<upstream> are omitted (i.e., a patch already accepted upstream 36with a different commit message or timestamp will be skipped). 37 38It is possible that a merge failure will prevent this process from being 39completely automatic. You will have to resolve any such merge failure 40and run `git rebase --continue`. Another option is to bypass the commit 41that caused the merge failure with `git rebase --skip`. To restore the 42original <branch> and remove the .git/rebase-apply working files, use the 43command `git rebase --abort` instead. 44 45Assume the following history exists and the current branch is "topic": 46 47------------ 48 A---B---C topic 49 / 50 D---E---F---G master 51------------ 52 53From this point, the result of either of the following commands: 54 55 56 git rebase master 57 git rebase master topic 58 59would be: 60 61------------ 62 A'--B'--C' topic 63 / 64 D---E---F---G master 65------------ 66 67The latter form is just a short-hand of `git checkout topic` 68followed by `git rebase master`. 69 70If the upstream branch already contains a change you have made (e.g., 71because you mailed a patch which was applied upstream), then that commit 72will be skipped. For example, running `git rebase master` on the 73following history (in which A' and A introduce the same set of changes, 74but have different committer information): 75 76------------ 77 A---B---C topic 78 / 79 D---E---A'---F master 80------------ 81 82will result in: 83 84------------ 85 B'---C' topic 86 / 87 D---E---A'---F master 88------------ 89 90Here is how you would transplant a topic branch based on one 91branch to another, to pretend that you forked the topic branch 92from the latter branch, using `rebase --onto`. 93 94First let's assume your 'topic' is based on branch 'next'. 95For example, a feature developed in 'topic' depends on some 96functionality which is found in 'next'. 97 98------------ 99 o---o---o---o---o master 100 \ 101 o---o---o---o---o next 102 \ 103 o---o---o topic 104------------ 105 106We want to make 'topic' forked from branch 'master'; for example, 107because the functionality on which 'topic' depends was merged into the 108more stable 'master' branch. We want our tree to look like this: 109 110------------ 111 o---o---o---o---o master 112 | \ 113 | o'--o'--o' topic 114 \ 115 o---o---o---o---o next 116------------ 117 118We can get this using the following command: 119 120 git rebase --onto master next topic 121 122 123Another example of --onto option is to rebase part of a 124branch. If we have the following situation: 125 126------------ 127 H---I---J topicB 128 / 129 E---F---G topicA 130 / 131 A---B---C---D master 132------------ 133 134then the command 135 136 git rebase --onto master topicA topicB 137 138would result in: 139 140------------ 141 H'--I'--J' topicB 142 / 143 | E---F---G topicA 144 |/ 145 A---B---C---D master 146------------ 147 148This is useful when topicB does not depend on topicA. 149 150A range of commits could also be removed with rebase. If we have 151the following situation: 152 153------------ 154 E---F---G---H---I---J topicA 155------------ 156 157then the command 158 159 git rebase --onto topicA~5 topicA~3 topicA 160 161would result in the removal of commits F and G: 162 163------------ 164 E---H'---I'---J' topicA 165------------ 166 167This is useful if F and G were flawed in some way, or should not be 168part of topicA. Note that the argument to --onto and the <upstream> 169parameter can be any valid commit-ish. 170 171In case of conflict, 'git-rebase' will stop at the first problematic commit 172and leave conflict markers in the tree. You can use 'git-diff' to locate 173the markers (<<<<<<) and make edits to resolve the conflict. For each 174file you edit, you need to tell git that the conflict has been resolved, 175typically this would be done with 176 177 178 git add <filename> 179 180 181After resolving the conflict manually and updating the index with the 182desired resolution, you can continue the rebasing process with 183 184 185 git rebase --continue 186 187 188Alternatively, you can undo the 'git-rebase' with 189 190 191 git rebase --abort 192 193OPTIONS 194------- 195<newbase>:: 196 Starting point at which to create the new commits. If the 197 --onto option is not specified, the starting point is 198 <upstream>. May be any valid commit, and not just an 199 existing branch name. 200 201<upstream>:: 202 Upstream branch to compare against. May be any valid commit, 203 not just an existing branch name. 204 205<branch>:: 206 Working branch; defaults to HEAD. 207 208--continue:: 209 Restart the rebasing process after having resolved a merge conflict. 210 211--abort:: 212 Restore the original branch and abort the rebase operation. 213 214--skip:: 215 Restart the rebasing process by skipping the current patch. 216 217-m:: 218--merge:: 219 Use merging strategies to rebase. When the recursive (default) merge 220 strategy is used, this allows rebase to be aware of renames on the 221 upstream side. 222 223-s <strategy>:: 224--strategy=<strategy>:: 225 Use the given merge strategy; can be supplied more than 226 once to specify them in the order they should be tried. 227 If there is no `-s` option, a built-in list of strategies 228 is used instead ('git-merge-recursive' when merging a single 229 head, 'git-merge-octopus' otherwise). This implies --merge. 230 231-v:: 232--verbose:: 233 Display a diffstat of what changed upstream since the last rebase. 234 235-C<n>:: 236 Ensure at least <n> lines of surrounding context match before 237 and after each change. When fewer lines of surrounding 238 context exist they all must match. By default no context is 239 ever ignored. 240 241--whitespace=<nowarn|warn|error|error-all|strip>:: 242 This flag is passed to the 'git-apply' program 243 (see linkgit:git-apply[1]) that applies the patch. 244 245-i:: 246--interactive:: 247 Make a list of the commits which are about to be rebased. Let the 248 user edit that list before rebasing. This mode can also be used to 249 split commits (see SPLITTING COMMITS below). 250 251-p:: 252--preserve-merges:: 253 Instead of ignoring merges, try to recreate them. This option 254 only works in interactive mode. 255 256include::merge-strategies.txt[] 257 258NOTES 259----- 260When you rebase a branch, you are changing its history in a way that 261will cause problems for anyone who already has a copy of the branch 262in their repository and tries to pull updates from you. You should 263understand the implications of using 'git-rebase' on a repository that 264you share. 265 266When the git-rebase command is run, it will first execute a "pre-rebase" 267hook if one exists. You can use this hook to do sanity checks and 268reject the rebase if it isn't appropriate. Please see the template 269pre-rebase hook script for an example. 270 271Upon completion, <branch> will be the current branch. 272 273INTERACTIVE MODE 274---------------- 275 276Rebasing interactively means that you have a chance to edit the commits 277which are rebased. You can reorder the commits, and you can 278remove them (weeding out bad or otherwise unwanted patches). 279 280The interactive mode is meant for this type of workflow: 281 2821. have a wonderful idea 2832. hack on the code 2843. prepare a series for submission 2854. submit 286 287where point 2. consists of several instances of 288 289a. regular use 290 1. finish something worthy of a commit 291 2. commit 292b. independent fixup 293 1. realize that something does not work 294 2. fix that 295 3. commit it 296 297Sometimes the thing fixed in b.2. cannot be amended to the not-quite 298perfect commit it fixes, because that commit is buried deeply in a 299patch series. That is exactly what interactive rebase is for: use it 300after plenty of "a"s and "b"s, by rearranging and editing 301commits, and squashing multiple commits into one. 302 303Start it with the last commit you want to retain as-is: 304 305 git rebase -i <after-this-commit> 306 307An editor will be fired up with all the commits in your current branch 308(ignoring merge commits), which come after the given commit. You can 309reorder the commits in this list to your heart's content, and you can 310remove them. The list looks more or less like this: 311 312------------------------------------------- 313pick deadbee The oneline of this commit 314pick fa1afe1 The oneline of the next commit 315... 316------------------------------------------- 317 318The oneline descriptions are purely for your pleasure; 'git-rebase' will 319not look at them but at the commit names ("deadbee" and "fa1afe1" in this 320example), so do not delete or edit the names. 321 322By replacing the command "pick" with the command "edit", you can tell 323'git-rebase' to stop after applying that commit, so that you can edit 324the files and/or the commit message, amend the commit, and continue 325rebasing. 326 327If you want to fold two or more commits into one, replace the command 328"pick" with "squash" for the second and subsequent commit. If the 329commits had different authors, it will attribute the squashed commit to 330the author of the first commit. 331 332In both cases, or when a "pick" does not succeed (because of merge 333errors), the loop will stop to let you fix things, and you can continue 334the loop with `git rebase --continue`. 335 336For example, if you want to reorder the last 5 commits, such that what 337was HEAD~4 becomes the new HEAD. To achieve that, you would call 338'git-rebase' like this: 339 340---------------------- 341$ git rebase -i HEAD~5 342---------------------- 343 344And move the first patch to the end of the list. 345 346You might want to preserve merges, if you have a history like this: 347 348------------------ 349 X 350 \ 351 A---M---B 352 / 353---o---O---P---Q 354------------------ 355 356Suppose you want to rebase the side branch starting at "A" to "Q". Make 357sure that the current HEAD is "B", and call 358 359----------------------------- 360$ git rebase -i -p --onto Q O 361----------------------------- 362 363 364SPLITTING COMMITS 365----------------- 366 367In interactive mode, you can mark commits with the action "edit". However, 368this does not necessarily mean that 'git-rebase' expects the result of this 369edit to be exactly one commit. Indeed, you can undo the commit, or you can 370add other commits. This can be used to split a commit into two: 371 372- Start an interactive rebase with `git rebase -i <commit>^`, where 373 <commit> is the commit you want to split. In fact, any commit range 374 will do, as long as it contains that commit. 375 376- Mark the commit you want to split with the action "edit". 377 378- When it comes to editing that commit, execute `git reset HEAD^`. The 379 effect is that the HEAD is rewound by one, and the index follows suit. 380 However, the working tree stays the same. 381 382- Now add the changes to the index that you want to have in the first 383 commit. You can use `git add` (possibly interactively) or 384 'git-gui' (or both) to do that. 385 386- Commit the now-current index with whatever commit message is appropriate 387 now. 388 389- Repeat the last two steps until your working tree is clean. 390 391- Continue the rebase with `git rebase --continue`. 392 393If you are not absolutely sure that the intermediate revisions are 394consistent (they compile, pass the testsuite, etc.) you should use 395'git-stash' to stash away the not-yet-committed changes 396after each commit, test, and amend the commit if fixes are necessary. 397 398 399Authors 400------ 401Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> and 402Johannes E. Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de> 403 404Documentation 405-------------- 406Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 407 408GIT 409--- 410Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite