33.20 Git Merge

20200908

A pull will do a fetch followed by a merge. A merge will update the local repository to incorporate the current updates from the remote repository.

An alternative to doing a merge is to do a rebase which updates the local repository changes to be based on the sequence of updates from the remote repository. Hence it is rebased!

That is, a fetch:

- o - o - o - H - A - B - C (main)
               \
                P - Q - R (origin/main)

A merge:

- o - o - o - H - A - B - C - X (main)
               \             /
                P - Q - R --- (origin/main)

A rebase:

- o - o - o - H - P - Q - R - A' - B' - C' (main)
                          |
                          (origin/main)

C’ and X should be identical. The history will look different.

A merge is probably better than a rebase in the case where someone else has pulled from your main branch.

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