Git: How to rebase your feature branch from one branch to another
In a nutshell: Use git rebase --onto target-branch source-commit
-
target-branchmeans "branch you want to be based on" -
source-commitmeans "commit before your first feature commit"
Let's say my-feature-branch is based on master and we want it to be based on production. Consider this history:
%%{init: { 'gitGraph': {'showCommitLabel': true, 'mainBranchName': 'production'}} }%%
gitGraph
commit id: "1"
commit id: "2"
branch master
commit id: "3"
commit id: "4"
branch my-feature-branch
commit id: "5"
commit id: "6"
Here, master has commits that are not yet in production (number 3 and 4).
Just doing a simple git rebase production from my-feature-branch will do nothing, as production is already in its history. Merging the feature branch into production would now merge commits 3 through 6, including commit 3 and 4 from master.
%%{init: { 'gitGraph': {'showCommitLabel': true, 'mainBranchName': 'production'}} }%%
gitGraph
commit id: "1"
commit id: "2"
branch master
commit id: "3"
commit id: "4"
checkout production
merge master
commit id: "5"
commit id: "6"
This is not what we want.
Instead, we want to chop off our commits since master (number 5 and 6) and place them on production. We need to do this (while being in my-feature-branch):
git rebase master --onto production
This tells git you are moving the commits since master to production, and you'd end up with this:
%%{init: { 'gitGraph': {'showCommitLabel': true, 'mainBranchName': 'production'}} }%%
gitGraph
commit id: "1"
commit id: "2"
branch master
commit id: "3"
commit id: "4"
checkout production
branch my-feature-branch
commit id: "5"
commit id: "6"
Note that after doing that, you will have changed your branch's history and need to do a forced push, if it was on origin before.
As always, you can supply commit hashes, not just branch names (which are only shortcuts to a commit anyway).