[petsc-dev] Commit squashing in MR

[Jed Brown]

Satish Balay via petsc-dev <petsc-dev at mcs.anl.gov> writes:

> On Wed, 3 Mar 2021, Blaise A Bourdin wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>> 
>> This is not technically a petsc question. 
>> It would be great to have a short section in the PETSc integration workflow document explaining how to squash commits in a MR for git-impaired developers like me.
>> 
>> Anybody wants to pitch in, or explain me how to do this?
>
> To squash commits - I use the 'squash' action in 'git rebase -i HASH' and figure out the HASH to use from 'gitk main..branch'
>
> [as git rebase requires the commit prior to the first commit of interest]
>
> git provides many ways of modifying the branch (and the rebase topic is very generic) so I think its best to rely on proper git docs/tutorials
> [and its not really specific to petsc workflow]

You can do it in one line, without changing the base:

  git rebase -i $(git merge-base main HEAD)


An alternative is

  git rebase -i main

which gives you interactive rebase to replay on top of current 'main'. This does two things at once and changing the base for your branch is not always desirable.