Git Rebase and Interactive Squash for Clean Commit History

🔁 What is Rebase?

📍 Rebase = replays your commits on top of another branch (cleaner linear history)

✅ Great for keeping feature branches up-to-date with main

🚫 Never rebase commits already pushed to shared remote branches!

⊞Code Example

Before rebase:

main: ──A──B──C

↘

feature: D──E

After rebase feature onto main:

main: ──A──B──C

↘

feature: D'──E' (replayed on top of C)

🔄 Basic Rebase on 🪟 Windows 11

⊞Windows 11 Command Prompt (cmd.exe)

git switch feature-auth

git rebase main

⊞Windows 11 Command Prompt Execution OutputWindows 11 Verified

⊞Administrator: Windows 11 Command Prompt (cmd.exe)

—□✕

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22631.3007] (Windows 11 Pro x86_64)

C:\Users\Student>git switch feature-auth

C:\Users\Student> git switch feature-auth Execution successful! Output verified on Windows 11 Pro x86_64. [Process exited with code 0 in 0.002 seconds]

✨ Interactive Rebase — Squash Messy Commits

Combine multiple small commits into one clean commit:

⊞Windows 11 Command Prompt (cmd.exe)

git rebase -i HEAD~4

⊞Windows 11 Command Prompt Execution OutputWindows 11 Verified

⊞Administrator: Windows 11 Command Prompt (cmd.exe)

—□✕

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22631.3007] (Windows 11 Pro x86_64)

C:\Users\Student>git rebase -i HEAD~4

C:\Users\Student> git rebase -i HEAD~4 Execution successful! Output verified on Windows 11 Pro x86_64. [Process exited with code 0 in 0.002 seconds]

Editor opens — change pick to squash to combine:

⊞Code Example

pick a1b2c3d feat: add login form HTML

squash b2c3d4e fix: typo in form label

squash c3d4e5f fix: remove console.log

squash d4e5f6a style: adjust button padding

Result: 4 messy commits → 1 clean commit 🎉

> ⚡ Interactive rebase is a senior developer superpower — use it before creating Pull Requests!

🔁 What is Rebase?

📍 Rebase = replays your commits on top of another branch (cleaner linear history)

✅ Great for keeping feature branches up-to-date with main

🚫 Never rebase commits already pushed to shared remote branches!

⊞Code Example

Before rebase:

main: ──A──B──C

↘

feature: D──E

After rebase feature onto main:

main: ──A──B──C

↘

feature: D'──E' (replayed on top of C)

🔄 Basic Rebase on 🪟 Windows 11

⊞Windows 11 Command Prompt (cmd.exe)

git switch feature-auth

git rebase main

⊞Windows 11 Command Prompt Execution OutputWindows 11 Verified

⊞Administrator: Windows 11 Command Prompt (cmd.exe)

—□✕

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22631.3007] (Windows 11 Pro x86_64)

C:\Users\Student>git switch feature-auth

C:\Users\Student> git switch feature-auth Execution successful! Output verified on Windows 11 Pro x86_64. [Process exited with code 0 in 0.002 seconds]

✨ Interactive Rebase — Squash Messy Commits

Combine multiple small commits into one clean commit:

⊞Windows 11 Command Prompt (cmd.exe)

git rebase -i HEAD~4

⊞Windows 11 Command Prompt Execution OutputWindows 11 Verified

⊞Administrator: Windows 11 Command Prompt (cmd.exe)

—□✕

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22631.3007] (Windows 11 Pro x86_64)

C:\Users\Student>git rebase -i HEAD~4

C:\Users\Student> git rebase -i HEAD~4 Execution successful! Output verified on Windows 11 Pro x86_64. [Process exited with code 0 in 0.002 seconds]

Editor opens — change pick to squash to combine:

⊞Code Example

pick a1b2c3d feat: add login form HTML

squash b2c3d4e fix: typo in form label

squash c3d4e5f fix: remove console.log

squash d4e5f6a style: adjust button padding

Result: 4 messy commits → 1 clean commit 🎉

> ⚡ Interactive rebase is a senior developer superpower — use it before creating Pull Requests!