Merging vs Rebasing - Quick Guide

Integration Strategy Overview

Git provides two primary mechanisms for integrating changes: merge and rebase. Understanding when to use each is essential for maintaining clean, maintainable repository history.

Quick Decision Guide:

• Merge: Preserves complete history, safe for shared branches
• Rebase: Creates linear history, ideal for local cleanup

Deep Dive: For comprehensive technical analysis of integration strategies, architectural trade-offs, and team workflow patterns, see Merging vs Rebasing - Complete Analysis.

The Everyday Developer’s Perspective

Simple Truth: Most developers use merge for 90% of their work. Rebase is a power tool—useful when you need it, but not required for daily Git usage.

Start Here: Master merging first. Add rebasing to your toolkit only when you encounter scenarios where it provides clear value (cleaning up feature branch history, updating with latest main).

Don’t Stress: Like many Git concepts, merge vs. rebase decisions become intuitive with practice. When uncertain, merge—it’s the safer choice.

Merge: Preserving Historical Context

When to Merge

✅ Shared branches (main, develop) ✅ Preserving parallel development timeline ✅ Integrating completed features ✅ Working with multiple collaborators

Basic Merge Operation

# Integrate feature branch into main
git checkout main
git merge feature-branch

# Result: Creates merge commit with two parents

Visual Representation:

Before:
      C---D (feature)
     /
A---B---E (main)

After merge:
      C---D
     /     \
A---B---E---M (main)

Merge Advantages

Complete History: Shows when branches diverged and converged

Safe Collaboration: Never rewrites existing commits—all SHAs remain unchanged

Single Conflict Resolution: Resolve conflicts once at integration point

Rebase: Linear History Construction

When to Rebase

✅ Local cleanup before pushing ✅ Updating feature branch with latest main ✅ Creating clean, linear history ✅ Preparing pull requests

Basic Rebase Operation

# Update feature branch with latest main
git checkout feature-branch
git rebase main

# Result: Replays feature commits on top of main

Visual Representation:

Before:
      C---D (feature)
     /
A---B---E (main)

After rebase:
A---B---E---C'---D' (feature)

Critical Note: C’ and D’ are new commits with different SHAs than original C and D.

Rebase Advantages

Linear History: Clean, readable commit sequence

Simplified Integration: Fast-forward merges possible

Cleaner Pull Requests: Organized commits for code review

The Golden Rule of Rebasing

Never rebase commits that exist outside your local repository.

Safe to Rebase:

• ✅ Local commits not yet pushed
• ✅ Personal feature branches only you work on

Unsafe to Rebase:

• ❌ main/master/develop branches
• ❌ Commits others have based work on
• ❌ Published release branches

Violation Consequence: Creates divergent history requiring forced push and team coordination.

Practical Workflow Patterns

Pattern 1: Feature Branch Development

Recommended Approach: Rebase locally, merge to main

# During development: Keep feature current
git checkout feature-branch
git fetch origin
git rebase origin/main

# Before pull request: Clean up commits
git rebase -i origin/main

# Integration to main: Merge
git checkout main
git merge feature-branch

Rationale: Clean feature history, documented integration point.

Pattern 2: Pull with Local Changes

Problem: Local modifications prevent pulling latest changes

Solution:

# Stash, pull, restore
git stash
git pull
git stash pop

# Or: Pull with rebase
git pull --rebase

Pattern 3: Merge Squash for Feature Integration

Use Case: Feature branch has many small commits; want single commit in main

git checkout main
git merge --squash feature-branch
git commit -m "Add user authentication feature

- Implement JWT tokens
- Add login/logout endpoints
- Create user session management"

Result: Main gets one commit instead of entire feature branch history.

Conflict Resolution Comparison

Merge Conflict Resolution

Single Resolution Pass:

git merge feature-branch
# Fix all conflicts
git add resolved-files
git commit

Characteristics: All conflicts visible simultaneously, resolve once.

Rebase Conflict Resolution

Iterative Resolution:

git rebase main
# Fix conflicts in first commit
git add resolved-files
git rebase --continue

# May encounter more conflicts in subsequent commits
# Repeat resolution process

Characteristics: Conflicts resolved per commit, potentially multiple passes.

Decision Framework

Use Merge When:

Use Rebase When:

Quick Command Reference

# Merge
git checkout main
git merge feature-branch

# Abort merge if conflicts
git merge --abort

# Rebase
git checkout feature-branch
git rebase main

# Interactive rebase (clean up commits)
git rebase -i HEAD~3

# Abort rebase if conflicts
git rebase --abort

# Continue after conflict resolution
git add resolved-files
git rebase --continue

# Pull with rebase
git pull --rebase origin main

Common Pitfalls

Pitfall 1: Rebasing Published Commits

Problem: Force-pushing rebased history breaks collaborators’ work

Solution: Only rebase local, unpublished commits

Pitfall 2: Too Many Merge Commits

Problem: History cluttered with merge commits

Solution: Use rebase for feature branch updates, merge only for final integration

Pitfall 3: Rebase Conflicts on Every Commit

Problem: Long-diverged branch causes repeated conflicts during rebase

Solution: Consider merge instead—single conflict resolution pass

Best Practices Summary

For Individual Developers:

1. Rebase feature branches to stay current with main
2. Clean up commits with interactive rebase before PR
3. Merge feature branches into main (don’t rebase main)

For Teams:

1. Establish clear policy: rebase for features, merge for integration
2. Never rebase shared branches
3. Document workflow in team guidelines

Configuration Recommendation:

# Enable rebase by default for pulls
git config --global pull.rebase true

# Specific branches use merge
git config branch.main.rebase false

When You Need More Depth

This guide covers everyday merge vs. rebase decisions. For comprehensive coverage including:

• Three-way merge algorithm details
• Merge vs. rebase performance characteristics
• Complex team workflow patterns (Gitflow, forking)
• Recovery from rebase disasters
• Philosophical approaches to history management

→ See Complete Merge vs Rebase Analysis

Master integration strategies: Understanding merge and rebase fundamentals enables confident feature development and clean repository maintenance.

Continue Learning: Explore Advanced Workflows