git merge vs rebase: what happens under the hood

🔀 git merge vs git rebase — what actually happens under the hood Most devs know the commands. Fewer understand what Git is actually doing to your commit history. ────────────────────── 🔵 git merge When you merge feature into main, Git finds the common ancestor, combines the changes, and creates a merge commit with two parents. (: History preserved (: Branch context visible (: Safe on shared branches (: Never rewrites history ────────────────────── 🟢 git rebase Rebase lifts your feature commits off their base and replays them one by one on top of the target branch — giving you a perfectly linear history. :) Replayed commits get new SHA hashes :) Original commits are discarded :) Dangerous on shared branches ────────────────────── ⚡ So which should you use? → merge when working on shared or public branches → rebase to clean up your local branch before a PR → Never rebase commits others are already building on ────────────────────── 🏆 The golden rule: Rebase locally. Merge publicly. ────────────────────── What's your team's workflow — merge commits or linear history? Drop it in the comments 👇 #git #softwaredevelopment #devtips #programming #versioncontrol

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