Re: is rebase the same as merging every commit?

From: David Jeske <jeske@willowmail.com>
Date: Aug 14, 2016, 00:43 UTC
Message-ID: <willow-jeske-01l7GnVAFEDjCe9c>
In-Reply-To: <vpqfxqz5qzj.fsf@bauges.imag.fr>

-- Matthieu Moy wrote:

Show 7 quoted lines

> > (3) If it only has (G) as a parent, does the rebase explicitly remove the
> > source A,B,C nodes from the repository?
>
> Most commands, and this includes rebase, are
> "add-only". The objects will remain unreferenced and
> will be pruned by the next git gc --prune. Unreferenced
> objects do not harm, they just eat your disk space.

I see. So it would be reasonable for the documentation to be altered slightly to show that the original nodes are still there, and that the primary difference between merging those changes one-by-one and rebasing is that rebase does not connect the new to the old. If you want to keep the old, you can toss a branch name on it, and if not, it still lives until the gc timeout.

The current docs showing those nodes missing tells me that they disappear, which is both scarry, and apparently inaccurate.