Working with Git is essential to modern software development, especially when collaborating on large projects. One common task that developers often need to do is “flattening” commits. This essentially means cleaning up the commit history, so it looks neat and makes sense, often by merging several commits into one. Flattening commits is particularly useful when you’ve made multiple small, incremental changes you want to present as a cohesive update.
In this article, I’ll walk you through the basics of flattening commits using Git’s interactive rebase feature.
What Does Flattening Commits Mean?
When you work on a feature branch, it’s common to make a series of commits as you progress. These commits might include multiple “WIP” (work-in-progress) changes, small fixes, or adjustments that aren’t relevant to the final history. Flattening commits involves combining these multiple commits into one or a few meaningful commits, making your Git history cleaner and easier to understand.
Why Flatten Commits?
- Clean History: Makes the project history easier to follow.
- Better Collaboration: Provide your teammates with a clear understanding of the changes you made.
- Easier Rollback: Reduces the number of points in history that you might need to roll back in case of issues.
