git cheats

squashing commits and keeping commit history

When you want to keep the commit history from your branch once merged to the other branch.

Refresh your local master

git checkout master
git pull

For safety, use a temp branch of your branch

git checkout myfeature
git checkout -b temp

Do the squash

git rebase -i master

this will launch your editor (mine is configured to use sublime). For all commits after the first flip “pick” to “squash”. Merge your temp branch to master and push it

git checkout master
git merge --ff temp
git push

squashing commits and discarding commit history

if you don’t care about commit history, or in some cases care to get rid of that history (often the feature branch has a lot of developer workflow goo that don’t make sense historically), then do this:

Get on a fresh master:

git checkout master
git pull --rebase

Do the squash

git merge --squash branch/name
git commit