Git’s flexibility allows for powerful manipulation of your project’s history, and one of the best tools for tidying up a messy commit sequence is git rebase. Whether you’re working solo or as part of a large team, knowing when—and how—to safely rewrite history can make all the difference in readability and maintainability of your repository.

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What is Git Rebase?

In simple terms, git rebase applies a sequence of commits from your current branch on top of another base commit. This can be used interactively to squash, edit, reorder, or otherwise polish your changes before merging them upstream. While merges preserve commit history, rebasing produces a straight, linear flow, which is much easier to follow.

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Why Use Git Rebase?

• Clean project history: Squash unnecessary commits (typos, debug prints) together.
• Linear timeline: Avoid merge commits and keep the log straightforward.
• Better collaboration: Rebasing before pushing integration branches (like feature/*) means fewer headaches for your team.

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Basic Usage: The Essentials

Let’s say you have a branch called feature-x that branches off from main.

git checkout feature-x
git rebase main

This applies your feature-x commits on top of the latest main. Conflicts? Don’t panic—Git will pause and let you resolve them, then continue the rebase with git rebase --continue.

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Interactive Rebase: Unleash Its Power!

Interactive rebasing lets you squash, reorder, drop, or edit commits:

git rebase -i main

This opens your default editor with a list like:

pick 1a2b3c4 Add login form
pick 5d6e7f8 Add forgot password flow
pick 9a0b1c2 Fix typo

You can change pick to squash to combine commits, or reorder lines as needed. Save and close—the rest is guided.

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When Not to Rebase

• Never rebase public/shared branches: This rewrites history, causing major headaches.
• Think twice before rebasing large, long-lived branches: The more changes, the more conflicts.

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Pro Tips

• Before rebasing, always make a backup branch: git branch backup-feature-x.
• Use git log --oneline --graph before and after to visualize changes.
• Automate the cleanup of fixup! or squash! commits with git rebase -i --autosquash.

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Conclusion

Rebasing is a powerful tool for any Git user aiming for a clean, readable project history. Handle it with care, especially on collaborative projects, and you’ll make life easier for your future self—and your teammates. Happy cleaning!

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Joe Git is a software engineer with a passion for demystifying all things Git. Check out his previous articles for deeper dives into advanced Git features and best practices.