Company
Date Published
Author
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Word count
1009
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

In software development, particularly in Git-based workflows, developers often face the choice between merging and rebasing when integrating changes from one branch into another, with the latter gaining traction among fast-moving companies due to its ability to maintain a cleaner and more understandable project history. Trunk-based development, which emphasizes a single source of truth and short-lived branches, is becoming more popular, especially in closed-source development environments, as it simplifies integration and reduces the complexity associated with long-lived branches. Rebasing, although initially daunting due to the intimidating nature of rebase commands and the potential for "force push" events on platforms like GitHub, offers significant advantages, such as easier reversion of changes and a tidier commit history. The trend towards rebasing is evident, with large repositories increasingly banning merge commits in favor of a squash-rebase-and-merge workflow, driven by tooling advancements like Phabricator and Graphite that automate and simplify the rebasing process. Despite its challenges, rebasing is being embraced by large tech companies and startups for its efficiency and cleaner workflow, marking a shift in industry practices.