What is Git Interactive Rebasing?

In the version control system, Git becomes a powerful and flexible tool for managing project history. Among its list of features, Git interactive rebasing stands as a powerful tool. In this article, we will learn more about Git Interactive Rebasing.

What is Interactive Rebasing?

Interactive rebasing in Git refers to a technique used to make compact the commit history through activities like reordering, editing, or combining commits with an interactive approach. It enables you to rearrange commit history systematically in a bid to create a more organized and cleaner project history.

Primary Terminologies

• Rebasing: When a series of commits are to be moved or combined on a new base commit, the process that must be followed is referred to as rebasing.
• Interactive Rebasing: Pull off a rebase using a choice of individual commits and interactively changing them.
• Commit: A photo of changes made to a given repository at some point during the day.
• Branch: A repository's parallel version which guarantees that changes to it won't interfere with the main codebase directly.
• HEAD: Reference is made to the most recent commit in the ongoing branch.
• Squash: Merging a number of amendments to form one.
• Edit: Editing a committed content.

Step-by-Step Process

• Start Interactive Rebasing: In the terminal, run the command: git rebase -i <base>, where <base> is the commit to rebase on.
• Choose Commits: By clicking on the Git, it leads you to an interactive editor where all the commits of the current branch are listed. Here, you can choose which commit you wish to change its position for example by moving it up or down within the list.
• Specify Actions: State the things you must do after selecting a commit; for example, select or abort.
• Save and Close: To enforce the stipulated actions, keep and exit from the editor.
• Resolve Conflicts (if any): When Git encounters a conflict, it can stop a rebase operation. According to the instruction from Git, you should correct these problems.
• Complete Rebasing: Proceed with the rebase process using ‘git rebase –continue‘ after fixing any existing conflicts.
• Push Changes: After you have finished rebasing, use git push –force to transfer changes made to the remote repository.

Example

These are the commands for git Interactive rebasing:

Step 1: Checkout to the master branch

git checkout master

Step 2: Fetch the latest change

git pull origin master

Step 3: Switch to the desired branch

git checkout code

Step 4: Integrate changes from master branch to current branch.

git rebase master

Step 5: Stage changes for the next commit

git add

Step 6: Continue the rebase process after resolving conflicts.

git rebase --continue

Step 7: Push the changes from the local "code" branch to the remote repository.

git push origin code

Feature Branch Repository

Master branch repository

Use Cases for Interactive Rebasing

1. Squashing Commits: Combine multiple small, related commits into cohesive units to maintain a clean and concise history.
2. Editing Commit Messages: Modify commit messages for clarity, correctness to project conventions.
3. Reordering Commits: Organize commits logically by rearranging their order to reflect the development process more accurately.
4. Removing Commits: Eliminate unnecessary or erroneous commits to streamline the commit history.
5. Splitting Commits: Divide commits containing unrelated changes into smaller, focused commits for better clarity.

Benefits of Interactive Rebasing

• Cleaner Commit History: Interactive rebasing provides the creation of a cleaner, more organized commit history, enhancing readability and maintainability.
• Granular Control: Developers gets control over the commit history, enabling a personalized method for creating commits.
• Encourages Best Practices: Interactive rebasing encourages sticking to best practices such as writing descriptive commit messages and keeping commits focused and concise.