Git rebase -I is not that scary

6 hours ago

The author expresses surprise at the common fear of git rebase -i among developers, even those more experienced, and aims to demystify it.
Running git rebase -i HEAD~4 opens a text file with a list of recent commits and commands (pick, reword, squash, fixup, drop), which is a plan for changes, not an immediate action; users can abort with git rebase --abort.
Interactive rebasing involves editing instructions per commit (e.g., rewording messages or dropping commits), creating new commits while leaving old ones intact in git's object database until garbage collection.
Safety measures include: git rebase --abort to bail out, the reflog to restore previous states (e.g., git reset --hard HEAD@{4}), and creating a backup branch (git branch backup-before-rebase).
Conflicts may arise during rebasing, but they are resolved one commit at a time (similar to merge conflicts) using git add and git rebase --continue, making them easier than branch merges.
The author advises using rebase freely on personal feature branches and pushing with git push --force-with-lease (preferable over --force for safety), while emphasizing understanding and care.
The key takeaway is that developers should learn and use interactive rebasing to maintain clean branch histories, with the post encouraging beginners to try it and overcome fear.

Hasty Briefsbeta