Keeping you git commits tidy with --fixup and --autosquash

If you find yourself reverting changes you made earlier in a feature branch you can re-write the commit history, removing the initial changes, and making it look like you had it all planned out from the start!

Make and add your changes. When you’re ready to commit, look up the commit hash of the commit you are changing the history of. Use git log --online to get a one-line summary of all commits. Each line starts with an abbreviated commit hash, eg: f3bd518. Copy the hash.

Now use git commit --fixup f3bd518. This will immediately create a new fixup commit.

Before you merge back into the main branch use rebase to combine the fixup commits into the original commit, re-writing it! First get any commit hash from a commit before the first commit you “fixed”, this is where the rebase will start form, and use git rebase -i --autosquash a13245b to squash your fixups into the original commit.

git add /file-to-change.txt
git commit --fixup <commit hash to be fixed>
git rebase -i --autosquash <commit hash one before the one to be fixed>