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Advanced Rebase Patterns

Deep dives for complex rebase scenarios that go beyond basic git rebase main.

Rebase --onto (Transplant Commits)​

When you branched from feature-a but now want your commits on main:

# Situation: feature-b was branched from feature-a
# main --- A --- B (feature-a)
#                \--- C --- D (feature-b, you are here)

# You want: main --- C' --- D' (feature-b, rebased onto main)
git rebase --onto main feature-a feature-b

# This says: take commits between feature-a and feature-b,
# and replay them onto main

Multi-level --onto​

# Rebasing a sub-feature onto a new base after upstream was rebased
git rebase --onto new-base old-base current-branch

Rebase Conflict Strategies​

Strategy 1: Ours/Theirs During Rebase​

During a rebase, "ours" and "theirs" are REVERSED from merge:

  • --ours = the branch you're rebasing ONTO (e.g., main)
  • --theirs = YOUR commits being replayed
# Accept the upstream version for a specific file during rebase
git checkout --ours package-lock.json
git add package-lock.json
git rebase --continue

Strategy 2: rerere (Reuse Recorded Resolution)​

# Enable globally
git config --global rerere.enabled true

# Now git remembers how you resolve conflicts
# Next time the same conflict appears, it auto-resolves

# See recorded resolutions
git rerere status
git rerere diff

# Forget a bad resolution
git rerere forget path/to/file

Strategy 3: Abort and Decompose​

When a rebase has too many conflicts:

git rebase --abort

# Instead of rebasing 20 commits at once, do it in chunks:
git rebase -i HEAD~20
# Mark the first 5 as "pick", the rest as "pick"
# Save. Resolve conflicts for just those 5.
# Then rebase the next batch.

Autosquash Workflow​

The fastest way to clean up work-in-progress commits:

# While working, create fixup commits:
git commit --fixup abc123       # Will be squashed into abc123
git commit --fixup :/"Add auth" # Match by commit message substring

# When ready to clean up:
git rebase -i --autosquash main

# fixup! commits automatically arrange themselves
# Just save the editor and they squash in order

Squash vs Fixup​

  • git commit --squash abc123 — Squashes AND lets you edit the final message
  • git commit --fixup abc123 — Squashes AND keeps the original message (most common)

Preserving Merge Commits During Rebase​

# By default, rebase flattens merge commits
# To preserve them:
git rebase --rebase-merges main

# This recreates the merge structure on the new base
# Useful for feature branches that had their own sub-branches

Rebase Safety Checklist​

  1. Am I the only one pushing to this branch? If no → DON'T REBASE
  2. Do I have uncommitted changes? If yes → git stash first
  3. Is the rebase complex (>10 commits)? If yes → make a backup branch first: git branch backup-feature
  4. Have I fetched recently? git fetch origin before rebasing onto remote branches
  5. Do I know reflog? If yes → you can always recover. If no → learn it before complex rebases.