Question

I often do this:

git add -u
git commit

…discover mistake, fix it…

git add -u
git commit -m "Fix typo"

Is there an easy way to squash the second commit back into the first? Sometimes I can do it with git rebase -i, but sometimes I just get a message about being up to date.

Note I’m only really talking about situations where I haven’t pushed the first commit. Basically I want to use the first log message, but with the combined effect of the two commits. Can I use git commit --amend for such things?

This related question kind of dealt with this:
git: squash/fixup earlier commit

The best answer is a year old though, and I wonder if things have improved?

Answer 1

This is exactly what git commit --amend is for. Given your example, all you need to do is add the --amend flag to your second commit:

git add -u
git commit

…discover mistake, fix it…

git add -u
git commit --amend

You can do this visually in git gui also (there is a radio-box to toggle between “new commit” and “amend last commit”)