Git interactive rebase a branch to the master

GitInteractiveRebaseBranchToMaster.md

Git interactive rebase a branch to the master

1. Check out the lastest changes for the master with one of the following commands

   git checkout origin master or git fetch origin master
   

2. Create a new branch from the master

   git branch -b TEMP
   

3. Check out the branch that you want to rebase. For example, if the branch is BRANCH_REBASE

   git checkout BRANCH_REBASE
   

4. Start the interactive rebase using the following command

   git rebase -i TEMP
   

   This command will select all the commits of this branch and will be presented in an editor in the following format

   pick 5cf316e Add empty page in about section
   pick 964e013 Add contents to about page
   pick 89db9ab Add HTML page for personal bio
   pick 2bda8e5 Add empty HTML page for Mary's bio
   pick 915466f Add link to about section in home page
   

   You want to create only one commit, so you will have only one pick and all the other commit will be squashed. The above example becomes

   pick 5cf316e Add empty page in about section
   squash 964e013 Add contents to about page
   squash 89db9ab Add HTML page for personal bio
   squash 2bda8e5 Add empty HTML page for Mary's bio
   squash 915466f Add link to about section in home page
   

5. You save the above screen and close the editor. If there are no conflicts, a new editor will appear, which will be the message for the commit. You edit the message as you wish. Save and close the editor.

6. Your local branch of BRANCH_REBASE will have only one commit, instead of 5 (from the above example). Don't try to push your local branch BRANCH_REBASE to the remote, you will get an error.

7. You merge the BRANCH_REBASE to the TEMP branch. Use the following commands

   git checkout TEMP		# Checkout the TEMP branch
   git merge BRANCH_REBASE		# Merge the BRANCH_REBASE to TEMP
   

   You can push the local TEMP branch to the remote with the following command

   git push origin TEMP
   

8. Now remove the local and remote branch of BRANCH_REBASE with the following commands

   git branch -d BRANCH_REBASE	# Remove local branch
   git push origin :BRANCH_REBASE	# Remove remote branch
   

9. In order to merge the TEMP to master do the following

   git checkout master
   git merge TEMP
   

   After you checked that everything is ok on master you can delete the TEMP branch

   git branch -d TEMP	# Remove local branch
   git push origin :TEMP	# Remove remote branch