What is the difference between merge and rebase in Git? When is it better to use each?

Difference between merge and rebase in Git:

• merge combines two branches, creating a new merge commit that preserves the history of both branches. The history becomes branching.
• rebase rewrites the commits of the current branch on top of another branch, creating a linear history without merge commits.

When to use:

• Use merge if you want to preserve the full branching and merging history, which is useful for public branches and team collaboration.
• Use rebase to simplify history when working locally and want to make the history more linear and readable before publishing changes.

Example:

# merge
git checkout feature
git merge main

# rebase
git checkout feature
git rebase main

Important: do not rebase public branches to avoid conflicts for other developers.