How to distinguish between git rebase and git merge commands, and what are their advantages and disadvantages?

git merge and git rebase are two different commands for integrating changes from one branch into another.

• git merge combines two branches, creating a new merge commit. The history remains as is, showing that two branches have been joined.

  • Advantages: preserves the full history, easier to track when and how merges occurred.
  • Disadvantages: the history can become cluttered with many merge commits.

• git rebase moves commits from one branch onto another, rewriting history as if changes were made sequentially.

  • Advantages: the history becomes linear and cleaner, easier to read.
  • Disadvantages: rewrites history, which can cause issues when collaborating if the branch has already been published.

Example:

# merge
git checkout feature
git merge main

# rebase
git checkout feature
git rebase main

The choice depends on the team and situation: for public branches, merge is usually used; for local branches, rebase.