What is the purpose of the git rebase command and in what scenarios is it used?

The git rebase command is used to transfer or 'rewrite' a series of commits onto a new base. This makes the commit history more linear and clean.

Main use cases:

• Updating a feature branch based on the current main/master branch: Instead of merging, rebase moves your commits on top of the latest changes from the main branch, simplifying the history.

• Cleaning up commit history: You can squash, modify, or delete commits before pushing to a shared repository.

Example:

# Rebase the current branch onto the main branch
git checkout feature
git rebase main

Important: When using rebase on public branches, be careful not to rewrite history that others are already using.