joshuaulrich/squash-and-merge-cli.md

## squash-and-merge-cli.md

      
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              squash-and-merge-cli.md
            
          
    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 master 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 master
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 master

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. You should see a single commmit on your branch that branched from master
git push -f

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 master 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 master
git pull
git checkout feat-fuu
git checkout feat-fuu-backup
git checkout master
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 master


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 master
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.