aortbals/squash-and-merge-cli.md

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Squash and Merge on the Command line

Raw

With the introduction of GitHub's Squash and Merge feature, this has become less prevelant, however it's still useful in scenarios where GitHub's interface is unavailable.

Let's talk through two ways to do a squash and merge on the command line.

Take 1: Interactive Rebase

When to use it

When you have not merged main into your feature branch
There are no merge conflicts
When you want to retain the original committer on the squashed commit

Steps

You are working on branch feat-fuu. You want to create a single squashed commit to push to your remote feat-fuu branch on GitHub.

git checkout main
git pull
git checkout feat-fuu
git checkout feat-fuu-backup
- Optional but recommended - make a backup version of your branch
git checkout feat-fuu
EDITOR='code -w' git rebase -i main
- Setting EDITOR is optional, and depends on your editor of choice. With the case of VSCode or Sublime Text, the -w flag tells the editor to "wait" until the file exits before closing.
In your editor, edit all of the additional commits to squash. Leave the first commit in the list alone
Save and exit your editor
Rewrite a nice single commit message for the commit
Check the history. feat-fuu will now contain a single commmit ahead of main
git push -f origin feat-fuu
- Please be careful with this step, as it overwrites your original remote branch on GitHub

Take 2: Git Squashed Merge

When to use it

You have merged main into your branch and resolved conflicts
You don't care about the author of the original commits (you will be rewriting it)

You are working on branch feat-fuu. You want to create a single squashed commit to push to your remote feat-fuu branch on GitHub.

git checkout main
git pull
git checkout feat-fuu
git checkout feat-fuu-backup
git checkout main
git branch -D feat-fuu
- You are deleting your original branch. Ensure you have created feat-fuu-backup beforehand and it has your full commit history.
git checkout -b feat-fuu
- This creates a fresh branch from main
git merge --squash feat-fuu-backup
- You are merging and squashing your original work into a single commit. This is where the magic happens.
Rewrite a nice single commit message for the commit
Check the history. You should see a single commmit on your branch that branched from main
git push -f -u origin feat-fuu
- Please be careful with this step, as it overwrites your original branch on GitHub

References

This Stack Overflow Post has additional detail about the differences between these two approaches.

toerndev commented Apr 15, 2020 •

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Appreciate the write-up. I'm not sure it's equivalent but this way seems to avoid the force push:

git checkout feat-fuu
git rebase -i master <- squash down to first commit
git checkout master && git cherry-pick feat-fuu <- can push to master without -f, retaining the original author
optional: git branch -D feat-fuu && git push origin --delete feat-fuu

Author

aortbals commented Apr 15, 2020

@toerndev Thanks for the comment! I would never suggest force pushing to master, as that is generally a bad practice and should only ever be done in extreme circumstances. Specifically, in both of these flows you are rewriting the original commit history of your feature branch, not master. I'll try and make it more clear in the document which branch you are pushing.

toerndev commented Apr 15, 2020

@aortbals Oh! Sorry for the lazy reading! 😄 I see now that you're squashing the remote feature branch, not squash-delete-merge-to-master! This page came up when googling how to squash-merge while keeping the author. I agree about avoiding force push to master, thus my sort of misdirected comment.

MykolaGolubyev commented Apr 22, 2020 •

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That's a very good explanation! Thank you.
Did you mean to use

git branch feat-fuu-backup

instead of

git checkout feat-fuu-backup

sboardwell commented Aug 15, 2020 •

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Nice write up. I have just found a way to have github do it for you.

curl -X PUT -H "Authorization: token ${adminToken}" --data '{"merge_method":"squash"}' https://github.<>.com/api/v3/repos/:org/:repo/pulls/${PR_ID}/merge

Ref:

user24 commented Mar 30, 2022

Would you consider updating these instructions to replace references to master with main as that is the standard main branch name now?

Author

aortbals commented Mar 30, 2022

Would you consider updating these instructions to replace references to master with main as that is the standard main branch name now?

Great idea. Will do that.

user24 commented Mar 30, 2022

Would you consider updating these instructions to replace references to master with main as that is the standard main branch name now?

Great idea. Will do that.

Awesome 😊

matu3ba commented Dec 2, 2024

I find it very annoying to being forced to switch branches for 1. merge commit and 2. squashed merge and there is no reason why rebase could not have a --squash option or merge have an --onto option.
The same applies to rev-parse and alike options.
What works:

# currently on branch 'feature' without git switch/checkout
# from branch 'feature' to branch 'master'
# -1 push master to upstream/master
#git push <remote> <local_branch_name>:<remote_branch_to_push_into>
git push upstream master:master
# 0. fast-forward merge
#git fetch <remote> <sourceBranch>:<destinationBranch>
git fetch . feature:master
# 1. merge with merge commit + push
git switch master && git merge --no-ff --no-commit && git switch feature
git switch master && git merge --no-ff --no-commit && git switch feature && git push upstream master:master
# 2. quash and merge + push
git switch master && git merge --squash && git switch feature
git switch master && git merge --squash && git switch feature && git push upstream master:master
# 3. rebase and merge + push
git rebase master feature && git fetch . feature:master
git rebase master feature && git fetch . feature:master && git push upstream master:master

matu3ba commented Dec 2, 2024 •

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Since the writing of this guide many things have been upated:

1. pull should be always done with --ff-only or being configured to prevent accidental messups
1. checkout is only necessary for orphaned or loose commits, otherwise use switch
1. EDITOR should be set as environment variable, no need for -w
1. git push force should never be used, use git push --force-if-includes --force-with-lease or at least --force-with-lease to prevent force push over another force push by your colleague

aortbals/squash-and-merge-cli.md

Take 1: Interactive Rebase

Take 2: Git Squashed Merge

References

toerndev commented Apr 15, 2020 •

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aortbals commented Apr 15, 2020

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toerndev commented Apr 15, 2020

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MykolaGolubyev commented Apr 22, 2020 •

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sboardwell commented Aug 15, 2020 •

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user24 commented Mar 30, 2022

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aortbals commented Mar 30, 2022

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user24 commented Mar 30, 2022

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matu3ba commented Dec 2, 2024

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matu3ba commented Dec 2, 2024 •

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aortbals/squash-and-merge-cli.md

Take 1: Interactive Rebase

Take 2: Git Squashed Merge

References

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aortbals commented Apr 15, 2020

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aortbals commented Mar 30, 2022

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toerndev commented Apr 15, 2020 •

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MykolaGolubyev commented Apr 22, 2020 •

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sboardwell commented Aug 15, 2020 •

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matu3ba commented Dec 2, 2024 •

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