A Rebasing Workflow for Git

You've decided to level up your Git skills and have heard that rebasing is where it's at. In this session we'll talk about: WHY rebasing can make it easier to untangle your project's history; WHEN you should use rebase; WHAT rebasing actually does to your repository; and HOW it actually looks when things go right (and how to recover when things go wrong).

Transcript

1. A Rebasing Workflow
   Emma Jane Hogbin Westby - Trillium Consultancy Ltd.
   www.gitforteams.com
   https://speakerdeck.com/emmajane/a-rebasing-workflow-for-git
   @emmajanehw
   

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2. A Rebasing Workflow
   Emma Jane Hogbin Westby - Trillium Consultancy Ltd.
   www.gitforteams.com
   https://speakerdeck.com/emmajane/a-rebasing-workflow-for-git
   @emmajanehw
   

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3. A Rebasing Workflow
   Emma Jane Hogbin Westby - Trillium Consultancy Ltd.
   www.gitforteams.com
   https://speakerdeck.com/emmajane/a-rebasing-workflow-for-git
   @emmajanehw
   

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4. Agenda
   • the tl;dl
   • Rant: why I don't like rebasing
   • Rave: when / why I use rebase
   • Wrap-up
   • Q&A
   

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5. the tl;dl
   too long; didn't listen
   

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6. Why should I rebase?
   • Because it makes your commit history easier to
   read, and manipulate.
   • “Because Joe told me to.”
   

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7. Rebasing is like

   a malleable sports re-play.
   Step 1. Rewind the history of your branch.
   Step 2. Apply new commits from an outside
   source.
   Step 3. Then re-apply your work.
   

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8. Rebasing is like

   a malleable sports re-play.
   Step 1. Rewind the history of your branch.
   Step 2. Apply new commits from an outside
   source.
   Step 3. Then re-apply your work.
   

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9. Rebasing is like

   a malleable sports re-play.
   Step 1. Rewind the history of your branch.
   Step 2. Apply new commits from an outside
   source.
   Step 3. Then re-apply your work.
   

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10. Rebasing is like

    a malleable sports re-play.
    Step 1. Rewind the history of your branch.
    Step 2. Apply new commits from an outside
    source.
    Step 3. Then re-apply your work.
    

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11. When should I rebase?
    

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12. When should I rebase?
    • Before sharing proposed
    work.
    

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13. When should I rebase?
    • Before sharing proposed
    work.
    

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14. When should I rebase?
    • Before sharing proposed
    work.
    • To update your local working
    branch.
    

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15. When should I rebase?
    • Before sharing proposed
    work.
    • To update your local working
    branch.
    

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16. When should I rebase?
    • Before sharing proposed
    work.
    • To update your local working
    branch.
    • To split a commit into two.
    

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17. When should I rebase?
    • Before sharing proposed
    work.
    • To update your local working
    branch.
    • To split a commit into two.
    

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18. When should I rebase?
    • Before sharing proposed
    work.
    • To update your local working
    branch.
    • To split a commit into two.
    $ git rebase -i edit
    

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19. When should I rebase?
    • Before sharing proposed
    work.
    • To update your local working
    branch.
    • To split a commit into two.
    $ git rebase -i edit
    rebase -i squash
    

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20. When should I rebase?
    • Before sharing proposed
    work.
    • To update your local working
    branch.
    • To split a commit into two.
    $ git rebase -i edit
    rebase -i squash
    rebase
    

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21. How do I rebase?
    • Squash a bunch of tiny commits into one:
    $ git rebase --interactive
    • Bring your local, working branch up-to-date
    $ git pull master
    $ git checkout my_local_branch
    $ git rebase master
    

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22. Groundhog Day Conflict?!
    • Resolve the conflict and then immediately save your
    recorded solution with:
    $ git rerere
    • Proactively turn on REuse REcorded REsolution:
    $ git config --global rerere.enabled true
    • Bad merge? Git will remember the wrong resolution.
    Immediately forget how you resolved it with:
    $ git rerere forget
    

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23. How do I stop rebasing?
    • If things go right, it will stop on its own.
    • If there are tears, you can abort.
    $ git rebase --abort
    

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24. 
    let the rants begin!
    

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25. Rant
    Why I don’t like rebasing.
    

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26. Historical Revisionism
    

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31. Rave
    Why I love the effects of rebasing.
    

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32. Making Whole
    Thoughts
    

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33. Resources for

    Good Commit Messages
    gitforteams.com/resources/commit-granularity.html
    

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34. Converting Conversations
    to Conclusions
    

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35. Patches vs.
    Pull Requests
    

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36. Merge vs. Rebase
    

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37. Often drawing the history graph
    BEFORE running a command
    will help you
    choose the right command.
    

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41. Choosing a Strategy
    • Pull = Fetch + Merge
    • Merge -> no fast forward (“true merge”)
    • Merge -> with fast forward
    • Merge with --squash -> all into one
    • Rebase -> rewind + replay
    • Cherry Pick -> copy and paste commits
    

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42. In Summary
    • The benefits of rebasing are most apparent to projects
    with multiple branches and multiple committers.
    • Rebasing allows you to reshape commit history so that
    you are storing conclusions, not conversations.
    • Rebasing can be used in place of merge to update a
    branch and results in a simplified graph of your
    repository history.
    • Rebasing can be used interactively to reshape a
    series of commits.
    

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43. www.gitforteams.com
    Emma Jane Hogbin Westby
    https://speakerdeck.com/emmajane/a-rebasing-workflow-for-git
    @emmajanehw
    

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