Git rebase vs merge — when would you use each?

Question

"Main branch has messy merge commits from 20 parallel branches. Should we rebase?"

Interview OS Community · Accepted Answer

## Merge preserves history, Rebase makes it linear

**Golden Rule**: Never rebase commits pushed to a shared branch.

```bash
# Feature branch: keep updated with main
git checkout feature && git rebase main  # Rebase YOUR branch

# Merge to main with context
git checkout main && git merge --no-ff feature

# Or squash merge (clean history)
git merge --squash feature  # All commits → 1 commit on main
```

| Scenario | Merge | Rebase |
|----------|-------|--------|
| Feature → main | ✅ Safe | ⚠️ Risky |
| Sync feature with main | Messy | ✅ Clean |
| Already pushed to remote | ✅ Always safe | ❌ NEVER |

Interview OS

Git rebase vs merge — when would you use each?

Question Details

Suggested Solution

Merge preserves history, Rebase makes it linear

Discussion (0)

Scenario	Merge	Rebase
Feature → main	✅ Safe	⚠️ Risky
Sync feature with main	Messy	✅ Clean
Already pushed to remote	✅ Always safe	❌ NEVER