Question

Suppose I have branch A. Now I create new branch B from A and make some commits. Suppose during this time A got a bunch of commits as well. Is there a way to merge those new commits to B such that the commits I made on B will be that the top ?

To illustrate:

A -> a1 -> a2 -- B created here -- -> a3 -> a4
                 B -> a1 -> a2 -> b1 -> b2

How do I merge such that B ends up like

 B -> a1 -> a2 -> a3 -> a4 -> b1 -> b2

Answer 1

You want to rebase, not merge

When on B, do

git rebase A

This won’t affect the A branch, but it will rewrite the recent history of the B branch.

Beforehand, you had

... -> a1 -> a2 -> a3 -> a4 -> A
              \--> b1 -> b2 -> B

and after you will have:

... -> a1 -> a2 -> a3 -> a4 -> A
                          \--> b1 -> b2 -> B