Squash Git Commits

Ever made several commits on a feature branch and needed to rebase? Rebasing multiple commits can be tedious if there is a conflict from an early commit, requiring a commit resolution in every commit that follows. It can be practical, therefore, to squash multiple commits into a single commit before rebasing.

Ever wanted to clean up your commit history before pushing? I often make quick commits if I’m required to switch branches, or spiking an idea during development that ends up being permanent. I’m left with messy commit messages that rarely follow best practice. Squashing commits to the rescue again! I can then take the time to carefully construct a commit message.

I will be using the oh-my-zsh aliases in this example below

Required: Z-Shell & oh-my-zsh

$ glo
5fe9acf97 done
5306d9b9f Vevert 'try out a fix'
da1341005 more wip
ef8bb3f49 try out a fix
471bd09c1 wip
895143a59 start the work
2b2a51e70 (HEAD -> master, origin/master, origin/HEAD) Refactor layout

As you can see, the commit history is a mess. Let’s squash all the commits since the head of local master into one commit.

First, reset your work to the commit before your work started, identified by the hash.

$ git reset 2b2a51e70

Notice your changes are still on disk but git only sees them as unstaged changes - your ugly commits have disappeared.

$ gst

Now we can commit with a more thoughtful commit message.

$ gaa
$ gcam "Add feature x..."

Now we’re in a position to rebase as the impact of a potential conflict has been reduced. Update your local copy of all remote branches and rebase on master.

$ gfo
$ grb origin/master

Resolve any conflicts using your editor then continue the rebase.

$ gaa
$ grbc

Confirm the history is as you expect, then push!

$ gst
$ gp -f # or use gpsup if the branch has not been pushed before

For a list of aliases, simply use the command: alias