Git rebase vs merge vs rerere

⚫ 𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞

When you merge, you’re combining your branch’s changes with the main branch (or another branch). Git does this by creating a new merge commit that links the two branches together. This is like two paths meeting up at a crossroad—you can see where they came from and where they meet.

Pros:

• Simple and safe, especially in team projects.
• Keeps the full history of changes.

Cons:

• Your history can get cluttered with extra merge commits.
• Frequent merges increase the chance of merge conflicts.

💡Bonus point: Merge commits could be useful target for triggering CI/CD pipelines.

🔴 𝐑𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞

Rebasing, on the other hand, rewrites history. It takes your changes and moves them to the tip of the main branch, as if you’d been working there the whole time. Think of it as editing your timeline so everything looks like it happened in one straight line.

Pros:

• Creates a clean, linear history with no merge commits.
• Makes it easier to understand the sequence of changes.

Cons:

• Risky in shared branches because it rewrites history.
• If conflicts arise during rebase, you have to fix them at each step.

⚫ 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐬

There is misconception that rebase cause fewer conflicts overall. Which is simply 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐞. The key difference is when you face those conflicts.

• With 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞, you get conflicts all at once when you merge the branches together. In other words, you are solving all the conflicts at once which could be convenient or overwhelming.
• With 𝐫𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞, you face conflicts during the rebase process, possibly at each commit, making it feel like conflicts happen "step by step." So by using rebase, conflicts are handled one commit at a time which also could be convenient or overwhelming.

💡𝐄𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐚 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐮𝐬 𝐓𝐢𝐩: Whether you choose rebase or merge, merge conflicts are a fact of life. But here’s a hack: use git 𝐫𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐫𝐞 (reuse recorded resolution) to let Git remember how you resolved past conflicts. Next time the same conflict shows up, Git will handle it automatically!

⚪ 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡?

• Use merge if you want a full history, especially in shared or team projects.
• Use rebase for a cleaner, simpler history—just be careful with shared branches to avoid rewriting history others rely on!