Chapter 12 — Interactive Rebase

Interactive rebase lets you rewrite history: reorder, squash, edit, or drop commits before sharing them.

Starting an Interactive Rebase

Example: Rebase the last 4 commits

git rebase -i HEAD~4

Your editor opens with:

pick a1b2c3d Add user model
pick b2c3d4e Add user controller
pick c3d4e5f Fix typo in user model
pick d4e5f6g Add user routes

The Commands

pick   = use commit as-is
reword = use commit, but edit the message
edit   = use commit, but stop to amend it
squash = meld into previous commit (keep message)
fixup  = meld into previous commit (discard message)
drop   = remove commit entirely

Squash: Combine Commits

Example: Squash a typo fix into the original commit

Change the file to:

pick a1b2c3d Add user model
fixup c3d4e5f Fix typo in user model
pick b2c3d4e Add user controller
pick d4e5f6g Add user routes

🧠 What happened? We moved the typo fix right after the original commit and changed pick to fixup. Git will combine them into one commit and discard the "Fix typo" message.

git log --oneline

g7h8i9j Add user routes
f6g7h8i Add user controller
e5f6g7h Add user model

Three clean commits instead of four.

Reword: Fix a Commit Message

Example: Change a message

reword a1b2c3d Add user model
pick b2c3d4e Add user controller

Save and close. Git will open a new editor for the commit message of a1b2c3d.

Edit: Modify a Past Commit

Example: Add a forgotten file to an old commit

edit a1b2c3d Add user model
pick b2c3d4e Add user controller

Save and close. Git stops at that commit:

# Add the forgotten file
git add user_model_test.js
git commit --amend --no-edit
git rebase --continue

Reorder Commits

Example: Change the order

Simply rearrange the lines:

pick d4e5f6g Add user routes
pick a1b2c3d Add user model
pick b2c3d4e Add user controller

⚠️ Reordering can cause conflicts if commits depend on each other.

Drop: Remove a Commit

Example: Delete a commit from history

pick a1b2c3d Add user model
drop b2c3d4e Add experimental debug logging
pick c3d4e5f Add user controller

Or simply delete the line entirely — same effect.

Autosquash

If you name fixup commits with fixup! or squash! prefix, Git can organize them automatically.

Example: Autosquash workflow

# Original commit
git commit -m "Add user model"

# Later, a fix for that commit
git commit -m "fixup! Add user model"

# Rebase with autosquash
git rebase -i --autosquash HEAD~3

Git automatically puts the fixup commit right after its target and marks it as fixup.

← Chapter 11: Cherry-Picking · Next: Chapter 13 — Git Internals →