Rebasing
Rebasing is a Git version control operation that integrates changes from one branch into another by rewriting the commit history. It works by moving or combining a sequence of commits to a new base commit, creating a linear project history. This is often used to maintain a clean, straightforward commit timeline in collaborative development.
Developers should use rebasing when they want to incorporate the latest changes from a main branch (like main or master) into their feature branch without creating a merge commit, keeping the history linear and easier to follow. It's particularly useful in pull request workflows to avoid messy merge histories and resolve conflicts incrementally, but should be avoided on shared branches to prevent rewriting public history.