Documentation / git-rebase.txton commit Sync with 1.7.11.2 (d5c771e)
   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] [options] [--exec <cmd>] [--onto <newbase>]
  12        [<upstream>] [<branch>]
  13'git rebase' [-i | --interactive] [options] [--exec <cmd>] --onto <newbase>
  14        --root [<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
  23If <upstream> is not specified, the upstream configured in
  24branch.<name>.remote and branch.<name>.merge options will be used; see
  25linkgit:git-config[1] for details.  If you are currently not on any
  26branch or if the current branch does not have a configured upstream,
  27the rebase will abort.
  28
  29All changes made by commits in the current branch but that are not
  30in <upstream> are saved to a temporary area.  This is the same set
  31of commits that would be shown by `git log <upstream>..HEAD` (or
  32`git log HEAD`, if --root is specified).
  33
  34The 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
  37to point at the tip of the branch before the reset.
  38
  39The commits that were previously saved into the temporary area are
  40then reapplied to the current branch, one by one, in order. Note that
  41any commits in HEAD which introduce the same textual changes as a commit
  42in HEAD..<upstream> are omitted (i.e., a patch already accepted upstream
  43with a different commit message or timestamp will be skipped).
  44
  45It is possible that a merge failure will prevent this process from being
  46completely automatic.  You will have to resolve any such merge failure
  47and run `git rebase --continue`.  Another option is to bypass the commit
  48that caused the merge failure with `git rebase --skip`.  To check out the
  49original <branch> and remove the .git/rebase-apply working files, use the
  50command `git rebase --abort` instead.
  51
  52Assume the following history exists and the current branch is "topic":
  53
  54------------
  55          A---B---C topic
  56         /
  57    D---E---F---G master
  58------------
  59
  60From this point, the result of either of the following commands:
  61
  62
  63    git rebase master
  64    git rebase master topic
  65
  66would be:
  67
  68------------
  69                  A'--B'--C' topic
  70                 /
  71    D---E---F---G master
  72------------
  73
  74*NOTE:* The latter form is just a short-hand of `git checkout topic`
  75followed by `git rebase master`. When rebase exits `topic` will
  76remain the checked-out branch.
  77
  78If the upstream branch already contains a change you have made (e.g.,
  79because you mailed a patch which was applied upstream), then that commit
  80will be skipped. For example, running `git rebase master` on the
  81following history (in which A' and A introduce the same set of changes,
  82but have different committer information):
  83
  84------------
  85          A---B---C topic
  86         /
  87    D---E---A'---F master
  88------------
  89
  90will result in:
  91
  92------------
  93                   B'---C' topic
  94                  /
  95    D---E---A'---F master
  96------------
  97
  98Here is how you would transplant a topic branch based on one
  99branch to another, to pretend that you forked the topic branch
 100from the latter branch, using `rebase --onto`.
 101
 102First let's assume your 'topic' is based on branch 'next'.
 103For example, a feature developed in 'topic' depends on some
 104functionality which is found in 'next'.
 105
 106------------
 107    o---o---o---o---o  master
 108         \
 109          o---o---o---o---o  next
 110                           \
 111                            o---o---o  topic
 112------------
 113
 114We want to make 'topic' forked from branch 'master'; for example,
 115because the functionality on which 'topic' depends was merged into the
 116more stable 'master' branch. We want our tree to look like this:
 117
 118------------
 119    o---o---o---o---o  master
 120        |            \
 121        |             o'--o'--o'  topic
 122         \
 123          o---o---o---o---o  next
 124------------
 125
 126We can get this using the following command:
 127
 128    git rebase --onto master next topic
 129
 130
 131Another example of --onto option is to rebase part of a
 132branch.  If we have the following situation:
 133
 134------------
 135                            H---I---J topicB
 136                           /
 137                  E---F---G  topicA
 138                 /
 139    A---B---C---D  master
 140------------
 141
 142then the command
 143
 144    git rebase --onto master topicA topicB
 145
 146would result in:
 147
 148------------
 149                 H'--I'--J'  topicB
 150                /
 151                | E---F---G  topicA
 152                |/
 153    A---B---C---D  master
 154------------
 155
 156This is useful when topicB does not depend on topicA.
 157
 158A range of commits could also be removed with rebase.  If we have
 159the following situation:
 160
 161------------
 162    E---F---G---H---I---J  topicA
 163------------
 164
 165then the command
 166
 167    git rebase --onto topicA~5 topicA~3 topicA
 168
 169would result in the removal of commits F and G:
 170
 171------------
 172    E---H'---I'---J'  topicA
 173------------
 174
 175This is useful if F and G were flawed in some way, or should not be
 176part of topicA.  Note that the argument to --onto and the <upstream>
 177parameter can be any valid commit-ish.
 178
 179In case of conflict, 'git rebase' will stop at the first problematic commit
 180and leave conflict markers in the tree.  You can use 'git diff' to locate
 181the markers (<<<<<<) and make edits to resolve the conflict.  For each
 182file you edit, you need to tell git that the conflict has been resolved,
 183typically this would be done with
 184
 185
 186    git add <filename>
 187
 188
 189After resolving the conflict manually and updating the index with the
 190desired resolution, you can continue the rebasing process with
 191
 192
 193    git rebase --continue
 194
 195
 196Alternatively, you can undo the 'git rebase' with
 197
 198
 199    git rebase --abort
 200
 201CONFIGURATION
 202-------------
 203
 204rebase.stat::
 205        Whether to show a diffstat of what changed upstream since the last
 206        rebase. False by default.
 207
 208rebase.autosquash::
 209        If set to true enable '--autosquash' option by default.
 210
 211OPTIONS
 212-------
 213--onto <newbase>::
 214        Starting point at which to create the new commits. If the
 215        --onto option is not specified, the starting point is
 216        <upstream>.  May be any valid commit, and not just an
 217        existing branch name.
 218+
 219As a special case, you may use "A\...B" as a shortcut for the
 220merge base of A and B if there is exactly one merge base. You can
 221leave out at most one of A and B, in which case it defaults to HEAD.
 222
 223<upstream>::
 224        Upstream branch to compare against.  May be any valid commit,
 225        not just an existing branch name. Defaults to the configured
 226        upstream for the current branch.
 227
 228<branch>::
 229        Working branch; defaults to HEAD.
 230
 231--continue::
 232        Restart the rebasing process after having resolved a merge conflict.
 233
 234--abort::
 235        Abort the rebase operation and reset HEAD to the original
 236        branch. If <branch> was provided when the rebase operation was
 237        started, then HEAD will be reset to <branch>. Otherwise HEAD
 238        will be reset to where it was when the rebase operation was
 239        started.
 240
 241--keep-empty::
 242        Keep the commits that do not change anything from its
 243        parents in the result.
 244
 245--skip::
 246        Restart the rebasing process by skipping the current patch.
 247
 248-m::
 249--merge::
 250        Use merging strategies to rebase.  When the recursive (default) merge
 251        strategy is used, this allows rebase to be aware of renames on the
 252        upstream side.
 253+
 254Note that a rebase merge works by replaying each commit from the working
 255branch on top of the <upstream> branch.  Because of this, when a merge
 256conflict happens, the side reported as 'ours' is the so-far rebased
 257series, starting with <upstream>, and 'theirs' is the working branch.  In
 258other words, the sides are swapped.
 259
 260-s <strategy>::
 261--strategy=<strategy>::
 262        Use the given merge strategy.
 263        If there is no `-s` option 'git merge-recursive' is used
 264        instead.  This implies --merge.
 265+
 266Because 'git rebase' replays each commit from the working branch
 267on top of the <upstream> branch using the given strategy, using
 268the 'ours' strategy simply discards all patches from the <branch>,
 269which makes little sense.
 270
 271-X <strategy-option>::
 272--strategy-option=<strategy-option>::
 273        Pass the <strategy-option> through to the merge strategy.
 274        This implies `--merge` and, if no strategy has been
 275        specified, `-s recursive`.  Note the reversal of 'ours' and
 276        'theirs' as noted in above for the `-m` option.
 277
 278-q::
 279--quiet::
 280        Be quiet. Implies --no-stat.
 281
 282-v::
 283--verbose::
 284        Be verbose. Implies --stat.
 285
 286--stat::
 287        Show a diffstat of what changed upstream since the last rebase. The
 288        diffstat is also controlled by the configuration option rebase.stat.
 289
 290-n::
 291--no-stat::
 292        Do not show a diffstat as part of the rebase process.
 293
 294--no-verify::
 295        This option bypasses the pre-rebase hook.  See also linkgit:githooks[5].
 296
 297--verify::
 298        Allows the pre-rebase hook to run, which is the default.  This option can
 299        be used to override --no-verify.  See also linkgit:githooks[5].
 300
 301-C<n>::
 302        Ensure at least <n> lines of surrounding context match before
 303        and after each change.  When fewer lines of surrounding
 304        context exist they all must match.  By default no context is
 305        ever ignored.
 306
 307-f::
 308--force-rebase::
 309        Force the rebase even if the current branch is a descendant
 310        of the commit you are rebasing onto.  Normally non-interactive rebase will
 311        exit with the message "Current branch is up to date" in such a
 312        situation.
 313        Incompatible with the --interactive option.
 314+
 315You may find this (or --no-ff with an interactive rebase) helpful after
 316reverting a topic branch merge, as this option recreates the topic branch with
 317fresh commits so it can be remerged successfully without needing to "revert
 318the reversion" (see the
 319link:howto/revert-a-faulty-merge.txt[revert-a-faulty-merge How-To] for details).
 320
 321--ignore-whitespace::
 322--whitespace=<option>::
 323        These flag are passed to the 'git apply' program
 324        (see linkgit:git-apply[1]) that applies the patch.
 325        Incompatible with the --interactive option.
 326
 327--committer-date-is-author-date::
 328--ignore-date::
 329        These flags are passed to 'git am' to easily change the dates
 330        of the rebased commits (see linkgit:git-am[1]).
 331        Incompatible with the --interactive option.
 332
 333-i::
 334--interactive::
 335        Make a list of the commits which are about to be rebased.  Let the
 336        user edit that list before rebasing.  This mode can also be used to
 337        split commits (see SPLITTING COMMITS below).
 338
 339-p::
 340--preserve-merges::
 341        Instead of ignoring merges, try to recreate them.
 342+
 343This uses the `--interactive` machinery internally, but combining it
 344with the `--interactive` option explicitly is generally not a good
 345idea unless you know what you are doing (see BUGS below).
 346
 347-x <cmd>::
 348--exec <cmd>::
 349        Append "exec <cmd>" after each line creating a commit in the
 350        final history. <cmd> will be interpreted as one or more shell
 351        commands.
 352+
 353This option can only be used with the `--interactive` option
 354(see INTERACTIVE MODE below).
 355+
 356You may execute several commands by either using one instance of `--exec`
 357with several commands:
 358+
 359        git rebase -i --exec "cmd1 && cmd2 && ..."
 360+
 361or by giving more than one `--exec`:
 362+
 363        git rebase -i --exec "cmd1" --exec "cmd2" --exec ...
 364+
 365If `--autosquash` is used, "exec" lines will not be appended for
 366the intermediate commits, and will only appear at the end of each
 367squash/fixup series.
 368
 369--root::
 370        Rebase all commits reachable from <branch>, instead of
 371        limiting them with an <upstream>.  This allows you to rebase
 372        the root commit(s) on a branch.  Must be used with --onto, and
 373        will skip changes already contained in <newbase> (instead of
 374        <upstream>).  When used together with --preserve-merges, 'all'
 375        root commits will be rewritten to have <newbase> as parent
 376        instead.
 377
 378--autosquash::
 379--no-autosquash::
 380        When the commit log message begins with "squash! ..." (or
 381        "fixup! ..."), and there is a commit whose title begins with
 382        the same ..., automatically modify the todo list of rebase -i
 383        so that the commit marked for squashing comes right after the
 384        commit to be modified, and change the action of the moved
 385        commit from `pick` to `squash` (or `fixup`).
 386+
 387This option is only valid when the '--interactive' option is used.
 388+
 389If the '--autosquash' option is enabled by default using the
 390configuration variable `rebase.autosquash`, this option can be
 391used to override and disable this setting.
 392
 393--no-ff::
 394        With --interactive, cherry-pick all rebased commits instead of
 395        fast-forwarding over the unchanged ones.  This ensures that the
 396        entire history of the rebased branch is composed of new commits.
 397+
 398Without --interactive, this is a synonym for --force-rebase.
 399+
 400You may find this helpful after reverting a topic branch merge, as this option
 401recreates the topic branch with fresh commits so it can be remerged
 402successfully without needing to "revert the reversion" (see the
 403link:howto/revert-a-faulty-merge.txt[revert-a-faulty-merge How-To] for details).
 404
 405include::merge-strategies.txt[]
 406
 407NOTES
 408-----
 409
 410You should understand the implications of using 'git rebase' on a
 411repository that you share.  See also RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
 412below.
 413
 414When the git-rebase command is run, it will first execute a "pre-rebase"
 415hook if one exists.  You can use this hook to do sanity checks and
 416reject the rebase if it isn't appropriate.  Please see the template
 417pre-rebase hook script for an example.
 418
 419Upon completion, <branch> will be the current branch.
 420
 421INTERACTIVE MODE
 422----------------
 423
 424Rebasing interactively means that you have a chance to edit the commits
 425which are rebased.  You can reorder the commits, and you can
 426remove them (weeding out bad or otherwise unwanted patches).
 427
 428The interactive mode is meant for this type of workflow:
 429
 4301. have a wonderful idea
 4312. hack on the code
 4323. prepare a series for submission
 4334. submit
 434
 435where point 2. consists of several instances of
 436
 437a) regular use
 438
 439 1. finish something worthy of a commit
 440 2. commit
 441
 442b) independent fixup
 443
 444 1. realize that something does not work
 445 2. fix that
 446 3. commit it
 447
 448Sometimes the thing fixed in b.2. cannot be amended to the not-quite
 449perfect commit it fixes, because that commit is buried deeply in a
 450patch series.  That is exactly what interactive rebase is for: use it
 451after plenty of "a"s and "b"s, by rearranging and editing
 452commits, and squashing multiple commits into one.
 453
 454Start it with the last commit you want to retain as-is:
 455
 456        git rebase -i <after-this-commit>
 457
 458An editor will be fired up with all the commits in your current branch
 459(ignoring merge commits), which come after the given commit.  You can
 460reorder the commits in this list to your heart's content, and you can
 461remove them.  The list looks more or less like this:
 462
 463-------------------------------------------
 464pick deadbee The oneline of this commit
 465pick fa1afe1 The oneline of the next commit
 466...
 467-------------------------------------------
 468
 469The oneline descriptions are purely for your pleasure; 'git rebase' will
 470not look at them but at the commit names ("deadbee" and "fa1afe1" in this
 471example), so do not delete or edit the names.
 472
 473By replacing the command "pick" with the command "edit", you can tell
 474'git rebase' to stop after applying that commit, so that you can edit
 475the files and/or the commit message, amend the commit, and continue
 476rebasing.
 477
 478If you just want to edit the commit message for a commit, replace the
 479command "pick" with the command "reword".
 480
 481If you want to fold two or more commits into one, replace the command
 482"pick" for the second and subsequent commits with "squash" or "fixup".
 483If the commits had different authors, the folded commit will be
 484attributed to the author of the first commit.  The suggested commit
 485message for the folded commit is the concatenation of the commit
 486messages of the first commit and of those with the "squash" command,
 487but omits the commit messages of commits with the "fixup" command.
 488
 489'git rebase' will stop when "pick" has been replaced with "edit" or
 490when a command fails due to merge errors. When you are done editing
 491and/or resolving conflicts you can continue with `git rebase --continue`.
 492
 493For example, if you want to reorder the last 5 commits, such that what
 494was HEAD~4 becomes the new HEAD. To achieve that, you would call
 495'git rebase' like this:
 496
 497----------------------
 498$ git rebase -i HEAD~5
 499----------------------
 500
 501And move the first patch to the end of the list.
 502
 503You might want to preserve merges, if you have a history like this:
 504
 505------------------
 506           X
 507            \
 508         A---M---B
 509        /
 510---o---O---P---Q
 511------------------
 512
 513Suppose you want to rebase the side branch starting at "A" to "Q". Make
 514sure that the current HEAD is "B", and call
 515
 516-----------------------------
 517$ git rebase -i -p --onto Q O
 518-----------------------------
 519
 520Reordering and editing commits usually creates untested intermediate
 521steps.  You may want to check that your history editing did not break
 522anything by running a test, or at least recompiling at intermediate
 523points in history by using the "exec" command (shortcut "x").  You may
 524do so by creating a todo list like this one:
 525
 526-------------------------------------------
 527pick deadbee Implement feature XXX
 528fixup f1a5c00 Fix to feature XXX
 529exec make
 530pick c0ffeee The oneline of the next commit
 531edit deadbab The oneline of the commit after
 532exec cd subdir; make test
 533...
 534-------------------------------------------
 535
 536The interactive rebase will stop when a command fails (i.e. exits with
 537non-0 status) to give you an opportunity to fix the problem. You can
 538continue with `git rebase --continue`.
 539
 540The "exec" command launches the command in a shell (the one specified
 541in `$SHELL`, or the default shell if `$SHELL` is not set), so you can
 542use shell features (like "cd", ">", ";" ...). The command is run from
 543the root of the working tree.
 544
 545----------------------------------
 546$ git rebase -i --exec "make test"
 547----------------------------------
 548
 549This command lets you check that intermediate commits are compilable.
 550The todo list becomes like that:
 551
 552--------------------
 553pick 5928aea one
 554exec make test
 555pick 04d0fda two
 556exec make test
 557pick ba46169 three
 558exec make test
 559pick f4593f9 four
 560exec make test
 561--------------------
 562
 563SPLITTING COMMITS
 564-----------------
 565
 566In interactive mode, you can mark commits with the action "edit".  However,
 567this does not necessarily mean that 'git rebase' expects the result of this
 568edit to be exactly one commit.  Indeed, you can undo the commit, or you can
 569add other commits.  This can be used to split a commit into two:
 570
 571- Start an interactive rebase with `git rebase -i <commit>^`, where
 572  <commit> is the commit you want to split.  In fact, any commit range
 573  will do, as long as it contains that commit.
 574
 575- Mark the commit you want to split with the action "edit".
 576
 577- When it comes to editing that commit, execute `git reset HEAD^`.  The
 578  effect is that the HEAD is rewound by one, and the index follows suit.
 579  However, the working tree stays the same.
 580
 581- Now add the changes to the index that you want to have in the first
 582  commit.  You can use `git add` (possibly interactively) or
 583  'git gui' (or both) to do that.
 584
 585- Commit the now-current index with whatever commit message is appropriate
 586  now.
 587
 588- Repeat the last two steps until your working tree is clean.
 589
 590- Continue the rebase with `git rebase --continue`.
 591
 592If you are not absolutely sure that the intermediate revisions are
 593consistent (they compile, pass the testsuite, etc.) you should use
 594'git stash' to stash away the not-yet-committed changes
 595after each commit, test, and amend the commit if fixes are necessary.
 596
 597
 598RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
 599-------------------------------
 600
 601Rebasing (or any other form of rewriting) a branch that others have
 602based work on is a bad idea: anyone downstream of it is forced to
 603manually fix their history.  This section explains how to do the fix
 604from the downstream's point of view.  The real fix, however, would be
 605to avoid rebasing the upstream in the first place.
 606
 607To illustrate, suppose you are in a situation where someone develops a
 608'subsystem' branch, and you are working on a 'topic' that is dependent
 609on this 'subsystem'.  You might end up with a history like the
 610following:
 611
 612------------
 613    o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o  master
 614         \
 615          o---o---o---o---o  subsystem
 616                           \
 617                            *---*---*  topic
 618------------
 619
 620If 'subsystem' is rebased against 'master', the following happens:
 621
 622------------
 623    o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o  master
 624         \                       \
 625          o---o---o---o---o       o'--o'--o'--o'--o'  subsystem
 626                           \
 627                            *---*---*  topic
 628------------
 629
 630If you now continue development as usual, and eventually merge 'topic'
 631to 'subsystem', the commits from 'subsystem' will remain duplicated forever:
 632
 633------------
 634    o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o  master
 635         \                       \
 636          o---o---o---o---o       o'--o'--o'--o'--o'--M  subsystem
 637                           \                         /
 638                            *---*---*-..........-*--*  topic
 639------------
 640
 641Such duplicates are generally frowned upon because they clutter up
 642history, making it harder to follow.  To clean things up, you need to
 643transplant the commits on 'topic' to the new 'subsystem' tip, i.e.,
 644rebase 'topic'.  This becomes a ripple effect: anyone downstream from
 645'topic' is forced to rebase too, and so on!
 646
 647There are two kinds of fixes, discussed in the following subsections:
 648
 649Easy case: The changes are literally the same.::
 650
 651        This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase was a simple rebase and
 652        had no conflicts.
 653
 654Hard case: The changes are not the same.::
 655
 656        This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase had conflicts, or used
 657        `--interactive` to omit, edit, squash, or fixup commits; or
 658        if the upstream used one of `commit --amend`, `reset`, or
 659        `filter-branch`.
 660
 661
 662The easy case
 663~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 664
 665Only works if the changes (patch IDs based on the diff contents) on
 666'subsystem' are literally the same before and after the rebase
 667'subsystem' did.
 668
 669In that case, the fix is easy because 'git rebase' knows to skip
 670changes that are already present in the new upstream.  So if you say
 671(assuming you're on 'topic')
 672------------
 673    $ git rebase subsystem
 674------------
 675you will end up with the fixed history
 676------------
 677    o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o  master
 678                                 \
 679                                  o'--o'--o'--o'--o'  subsystem
 680                                                   \
 681                                                    *---*---*  topic
 682------------
 683
 684
 685The hard case
 686~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 687
 688Things get more complicated if the 'subsystem' changes do not exactly
 689correspond to the ones before the rebase.
 690
 691NOTE: While an "easy case recovery" sometimes appears to be successful
 692      even in the hard case, it may have unintended consequences.  For
 693      example, a commit that was removed via `git rebase
 694      --interactive` will be **resurrected**!
 695
 696The idea is to manually tell 'git rebase' "where the old 'subsystem'
 697ended and your 'topic' began", that is, what the old merge-base
 698between them was.  You will have to find a way to name the last commit
 699of the old 'subsystem', for example:
 700
 701* With the 'subsystem' reflog: after 'git fetch', the old tip of
 702  'subsystem' is at `subsystem@{1}`.  Subsequent fetches will
 703  increase the number.  (See linkgit:git-reflog[1].)
 704
 705* Relative to the tip of 'topic': knowing that your 'topic' has three
 706  commits, the old tip of 'subsystem' must be `topic~3`.
 707
 708You can then transplant the old `subsystem..topic` to the new tip by
 709saying (for the reflog case, and assuming you are on 'topic' already):
 710------------
 711    $ git rebase --onto subsystem subsystem@{1}
 712------------
 713
 714The ripple effect of a "hard case" recovery is especially bad:
 715'everyone' downstream from 'topic' will now have to perform a "hard
 716case" recovery too!
 717
 718BUGS
 719----
 720The todo list presented by `--preserve-merges --interactive` does not
 721represent the topology of the revision graph.  Editing commits and
 722rewording their commit messages should work fine, but attempts to
 723reorder commits tend to produce counterintuitive results.
 724
 725For example, an attempt to rearrange
 726------------
 7271 --- 2 --- 3 --- 4 --- 5
 728------------
 729to
 730------------
 7311 --- 2 --- 4 --- 3 --- 5
 732------------
 733by moving the "pick 4" line will result in the following history:
 734------------
 735        3
 736       /
 7371 --- 2 --- 4 --- 5
 738------------
 739
 740GIT
 741---
 742Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite