git-rebase.txt

git-rebase(1)
=============

NAME
----
git-rebase - Forward-port local commits to the updated upstream head

SYNOPSIS
--------
'git-rebase' [-v] [--merge] [-C<n>] [--onto <newbase>] <upstream> [<branch>]

'git-rebase' --continue | --skip | --abort

DESCRIPTION
-----------
git-rebase replaces <branch> with a new branch of the same name. When
the --onto option is provided the new branch starts out with a HEAD equal
to <newbase>, otherwise it is equal to <upstream>. It then attempts to
create a new commit for each commit from the original <branch> that does
not exist in the <upstream> branch.

It is possible that a merge failure will prevent this process from being
completely automatic. You will have to resolve any such merge failure
and run `git rebase --continue`. Another option is to bypass the commit
that caused the merge failure with `git rebase --skip`. To restore the
original <branch> and remove the .dotest working files, use the command
`git rebase --abort` instead.

Note that if <branch> is not specified on the command line, the currently
checked out branch is used.

Assume the following history exists and the current branch is "topic":

------------
 A---B---C topic
 /
 D---E---F---G master
------------

From this point, the result of either of the following commands:


 git-rebase master
 git-rebase master topic

would be:

------------
 A'--B'--C' topic
 /
 D---E---F---G master
------------

The latter form is just a short-hand of `git checkout topic`
followed by `git rebase master`.

Here is how you would transplant a topic branch based on one
branch to another, to pretend that you forked the topic branch
from the latter branch, using `rebase --onto`.

First let's assume your 'topic' is based on branch 'next'.
For example feature developed in 'topic' depends on some
functionality which is found in 'next'.

------------
 o---o---o---o---o master
 \
 o---o---o---o---o next
 \
 o---o---o topic
------------

We would want to make 'topic' forked from branch 'master',
for example because the functionality 'topic' branch depend on
got merged into more stable 'master' branch, like this:

------------
 o---o---o---o---o master
 | \
 | o'--o'--o' topic
 \
 o---o---o---o---o next
------------

We can get this using the following command:

 git-rebase --onto master next topic


Another example of --onto option is to rebase part of a
branch. If we have the following situation:

------------
 H---I---J topicB
 /
 E---F---G topicA
 /
 A---B---C---D master
------------

then the command

 git-rebase --onto master topicA topicB

would result in:

------------
 H'--I'--J' topicB
 /
 | E---F---G topicA
 |/
 A---B---C---D master
------------

This is useful when topicB does not depend on topicA.

A range of commits could also be removed with rebase. If we have
the following situation:

------------
 E---F---G---H---I---J topicA
------------

then the command

 git-rebase --onto topicA~5 topicA~2 topicA

would result in the removal of commits F and G:

------------
 E---H'---I'---J' topicA
------------

This is useful if F and G were flawed in some way, or should not be
part of topicA. Note that the argument to --onto and the <upstream>
parameter can be any valid commit-ish.

In case of conflict, git-rebase will stop at the first problematic commit
and leave conflict markers in the tree. You can use git diff to locate
the markers (<<<<<<) and make edits to resolve the conflict. For each
file you edit, you need to tell git that the conflict has been resolved,
typically this would be done with


 git update-index <filename>


After resolving the conflict manually and updating the index with the
desired resolution, you can continue the rebasing process with


 git rebase --continue


Alternatively, you can undo the git-rebase with


 git rebase --abort

OPTIONS
-------
<newbase>::
Starting point at which to create the new commits. If the
--onto option is not specified, the starting point is
<upstream>. May be any valid commit, and not just an
existing branch name.

<upstream>::
Upstream branch to compare against. May be any valid commit,
not just an existing branch name.

<branch>::
Working branch; defaults to HEAD.

--continue::
Restart the rebasing process after having resolved a merge conflict.

--abort::
Restore the original branch and abort the rebase operation.

--skip::
Restart the rebasing process by skipping the current patch.

--merge::
Use merging strategies to rebase. When the recursive (default) merge
strategy is used, this allows rebase to be aware of renames on the
upstream side.

-s <strategy>, \--strategy=<strategy>::
Use the given merge strategy; can be supplied more than
once to specify them in the order they should be tried.
If there is no `-s` option, a built-in list of strategies
is used instead (`git-merge-recursive` when merging a single
head, `git-merge-octopus` otherwise). This implies --merge.

-v, \--verbose::
Display a diffstat of what changed upstream since the last rebase.

-C<n>::
Ensure at least <n> lines of surrounding context match before
and after each change. When fewer lines of surrounding
context exist they all must match. By default no context is
ever ignored.

include::merge-strategies.txt[]

NOTES
-----
When you rebase a branch, you are changing its history in a way that
will cause problems for anyone who already has a copy of the branch
in their repository and tries to pull updates from you. You should
understand the implications of using 'git rebase' on a repository that
you share.

When the git rebase command is run, it will first execute a "pre-rebase"
hook if one exists. You can use this hook to do sanity checks and
reject the rebase if it isn't appropriate. Please see the template
pre-rebase hook script for an example.

You must be in the top directory of your project to start (or continue)
a rebase. Upon completion, <branch> will be the current branch.

Author
------
Written by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>

Documentation
--------------
Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.

GIT
---
Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite