I have previously covered Git rebase, Part I, but here’s another way to use it: combine commits on your branch into fewer or just one commit.

This is a nice way to clean up git history. Frequently adding & committing is a good habit, but a ton of commits can really muck up a git history. Git rebase will help clean that up.

Type git log to see how far ahead feature branch B is from master branch A. Let’s say branch B has 5 commits ahead of ahead of A. By using git rebase -i HEAD~5 these 5 commits can be combined.

Normally, this will open up vim. However, I’ve added a command to .gitconfig to open this up in my text editor (Sublime Text, in this case), making it really easy to edit. Type this into command: git config --global core.editor "sublime -w"

Or, open up .gitconfig and add something like the following under [core]

[core]
  editor = sublime -w

The command is git rebase -i HEAD~5, and -i stands for interactive mode. After submitting this, sublime text will open a file showing something like:

pick 38c1680 get bye weeks working
pick 349f80d add adp files and other updates
pick cf8bd0e fix json syntax typo
pick c7e6306 adjust styles
pick 1155626 update rankings

# Rebase e778bd6..1155626 onto e778bd6 (5 commands)
#
# Commands:
# p, pick = use commit
# r, reword = use commit, but edit the commit message
# e, edit = use commit, but stop for amending
# s, squash = use commit, but meld into previous commit
# f, fixup = like "squ

To combine these five commits, replace pick with squash like so:

pick 38c1680 get bye weeks working
squash 349f80d add adp files and other updates
squash cf8bd0e fix json syntax typo
squash c7e6306 adjust styles
squash 1155626 update rankings

After doing this, just save and close. Then, another window should open up in Sublime Text showing commit information. Go ahead and just close that.

At this point, these 5 commits have been combined into a single commit. The commit messages from the 4 squashed commits will still be available in the commit comment.

One last thing, combining commits has re-written git history. Which means it will require a force push to your remote branch: git push -f origin branch-b