squash

Git · Reference cheat sheet

📋 Overview

Squashing combines multiple commits into one (or fewer) for a cleaner history before merge. Common via interactive rebase, merge --squash, or soft reset. Prefer squashing on feature branches, not on shared long-lived branches.

🔧 Core concepts

• Interactive rebase — pick + squash/fixup in git rebase -i.
• Merge squash — git merge --squash feature stages combined diff; you commit once.
• Soft reset — git reset --soft main then one new commit.
• fixup — like squash but discards the squashed commit’s message by default.
• Autosquash — commit --fixup + rebase -i --autosquash.

💡 Examples

# Interactive: last 5 commits
git rebase -i HEAD~5
# change pick → squash/fixup on commits to fold

# Soft reset onto main
git checkout feature
git reset --soft main
git commit -m "feat: add billing portal"

# Squash merge (keeps feature branch commits locally)
git checkout main
git merge --squash feature
git commit -m "feat: add billing portal"

# Fixup workflow
git commit --fixup abcdef1
git rebase -i --autosquash abcdef1^

⚠️ Pitfalls

• Squashing rewritten commits that were pushed needs force-with-lease.
• Losing detailed commit messages — keep a good final message / notes.
• Squash-merge on GitHub makes the PR branch diverge — delete/rebuild branches.
• Don’t squash commits that are merge bases for other work still in flight.
• Conflicts during rebase squash still need resolution per step.

🔗 Related

• rebase.md
• merge.md
• amend.md
• reset.md
• commit.md
• log.md