Rebase
Also called git rebase.
In plain English
Rebase replays commits onto another starting point, so they sit on top of a different commitA commit records a project state in Git, plus history information such as the parent commit, the author, and a message..
Example
Your branchA branch is a named line of snapshots, so a new idea can grow beside the shared line. started from last week's main. You rebase it onto today's main so your commits play after the newer work. A teammate who already pulled the old commits then sees a different history.
Why it matters
People often rebase to bring a branchA branch is a named line of snapshots, so a new idea can grow beside the shared line. up to date with newer work. The new starting point does not have to be main. Rebase rewrites the commits it replays.
If other people already have the old commits, rewriting that shared history forces them to reconcile the rewritten commits. That is the risk, not a reason to treat rebase as only an update against main.
Common confusion
Rebase is not limited to main, and it is not the same operation as mergeA merge brings another branch’s snapshots onto the branch you are on, usually after a person agrees.. Both can stop on a merge conflictA merge conflict happens when Git cannot automatically reconcile competing changes..
Sources
Updated September 30, 2026.