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Re:Git Rebase for the Terrified by drysine on Tuesday January 13, 2026 @02:29PM (#46606455)
>each commit nominally should work

Except it can be the result of 10 squashed commits.

Re:Git Rebase for the Terrified by bastardoperator on Tuesday January 13, 2026 @03:12PM (#46607195)
Which is the entire point of it. Why should I look at ten commits when I can look at one and get the same exact data? Why should I pollute my production history for what a is likely a bunch of debugging commits? The branch is a scratchpad, you should feel empowered within your own branch, rebase allows you to be lazy in the development cycle while presenting a nice clean set of changes at the end of it.
Re:Git Rebase for the Terrified by bonzini on Tuesday January 13, 2026 @04:39PM (#46608543)
You can split your work in multiple commits and at the same time drop/squash debugging or wip changes. The result allows you to go into much better detail than a PR description.
Re:Git Rebase for the Terrified by shawndumas on Tuesday January 13, 2026 @05:21PM (#46609162)
Yes! When you are deep in the code, your brain operates in a non-linear way. You try a solution, it breaks a test. You patch the test. You realize the variable name is wrong. You fix a typo.

Without Squash, the main branch history becomes a timeline of your mental struggle.

With Squash, the main branch becomes a catalog of features delivered.

No body needs to take a trip on the struggle bus with me...

Re:Git Rebase for the Terrified by drysine on Thursday January 15, 2026 @02:28PM (#46637862)
>Why should I look at ten commits when I can look at one and get the same exact data?

For the same reason you have your production history instead of zip file with code)

>while presenting a nice clean set of changes at the end of it

The set, yes, not a single squashed commit.

>The branch is a scratchpad, you should feel empowered within your own branch, rebase

Yes, amend, fixup, rebase. Make it a nice set of small commits.

Re:Git Rebase for the Terrified by Yeroc on Tuesday January 13, 2026 @03:13PM (#46607202)
Most of those 10 squashed commits likely had commit comments like: "Cleanup based on PR feedback." etc.
Re:Git Rebase for the Terrified by drysine on Tuesday January 13, 2026 @03:35PM (#46607529)
That's what --amend and --fixup are for.
Re:Git Rebase for the Terrified by cmrdporcupine on Tuesday January 13, 2026 @06:36PM (#46610089)
Which wreaks havoc with githubs shitty code review tool.

Which is an argument against GitHub, not clean commit history

Re:Git Rebase for the Terrified by cluckindan on Tuesday January 13, 2026 @07:44PM (#46610806)
Yep. Rebase rewrites history and all the PR review comments vanish.
Re:Git Rebase for the Terrified by drysine on Thursday January 15, 2026 @02:29PM (#46637873)
Gitlab seems fine with it