TIL: Git Interactive Rebase: Clean Up Your Commit History

# TIL: Git Interactive Rebase: Clean Up Your Commit History

Discovered git rebase -i today and it's a game-changer for cleaning up messy commit history before PR reviews.

The Problem

My commit history looked like this:

bash

fix typo
WIP
fix typo again
actually fixed it
remove console.log

Not exactly professional for a PR review.

The Solution

Interactive rebase lets you edit, squash, and reorder commits:

bash

# Rebase last 5 commits
git rebase -i HEAD~5

# Or rebase everything since branching from main
git rebase -i main

This opens your editor with:

bash

pick 1a2b3c4 fix typo
pick 5d6e7f8 WIP
pick 9g0h1i2 fix typo again
pick 3j4k5l6 actually fixed it
pick 7m8n9o0 remove console.log

# Commands:
# p, pick = use commit
# r, reword = use commit, but edit message
# e, edit = use commit, but stop for amending
# s, squash = meld into previous commit
# f, fixup = like squash, but discard commit message
# d, drop = remove commit

My Workflow

Change it to:

bash

pick 1a2b3c4 fix typo
fixup 5d6e7f8 WIP
fixup 9g0h1i2 fix typo again
fixup 3j4k5l6 actually fixed it
fixup 7m8n9o0 remove console.log

Result: One clean commit!

Pro Tips

Reword commit messages:*

bash

pick 1a2b3c4 fix typo
reword 5d6e7f8 add user authentication

Reorder commits:*

bash

pick 3j4k5l6 add tests
pick 1a2b3c4 add feature

Split a commit:*

bash

edit 1a2b3c4 huge commit with multiple changes

Then:

bash

git reset HEAD^
git add file1.js
git commit -m "feat: add feature A"
git add file2.js
git commit -m "feat: add feature B"
git rebase --continue

Warning

Never rebase commits that have been pushed to a shared branch!* You'll rewrite history and cause conflicts for your team.

Safe:

bash

# Your feature branch, not pushed yet
git rebase -i main

Dangerous:

bash

# Main branch that others use
git checkout main
git rebase -i HEAD~5  # DON'T DO THIS!

Useful Aliases

Add to your ~/.gitconfig:

ini

[alias]
    # Interactive rebase with the given number of latest commits
    rb = "!f() { git rebase -i HEAD~$1; }; f"
    
    # Rebase on main
    rbm = "!git fetch origin main && git rebase -i origin/main"

Now you can do:

bash

git rb 5        # Rebase last 5 commits
git rbm         # Rebase on main

This has saved me so much embarrassment in code reviews!

The Problem

The Solution

My Workflow

Pro Tips

Warning

Useful Aliases

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