Squashing commits in Git - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Squashing Commits in Git

📖 Scenario: You are working on a small project and have made several commits. Now, you want to clean up your commit history by combining these commits into one before sharing your work with your team.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to squash multiple commits into a single commit using Git interactive rebase.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a Git repository with three commits

Set a variable for the number of commits to squash

Use Git interactive rebase to squash commits

Show the final commit log with a single combined commit

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Squashing commits helps keep the project history clean and easier to understand before sharing code with others.

💼 Career

Many software development teams require clean commit histories for code reviews and collaboration, making this skill essential for developers.

1

Create a Git repository with three commits

Initialize a new Git repository called myproject. Create three commits with these exact commit messages in order: First commit, Second commit, and Third commit. Use the commands git init, git add, and git commit -m as needed.

Git

# Initialize repository and create three commits with exact messages
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use git init to start the repo. Then create or modify a file and commit three times with the exact messages.

2

Set the number of commits to squash

Create a shell variable called NUM_COMMITS and set it to 3 to represent the number of commits you want to squash.

Git

mkdir myproject
cd myproject
git init
echo "Line 1" > file.txt
git add file.txt
git commit -m "First commit"
echo "Line 2" >> file.txt
git add file.txt
git commit -m "Second commit"
echo "Line 3" >> file.txt
git add file.txt
git commit -m "Third commit"
# Set NUM_COMMITS to 3
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use NUM_COMMITS=3 to set the variable.

3

Use Git interactive rebase to squash commits

Run the command git rebase -i HEAD~$NUM_COMMITS to start an interactive rebase for the last three commits. In the editor that opens, change the second and third commits from pick to squash to combine them into the first commit. Save and close the editor to complete the squash.

Git

mkdir myproject
cd myproject
git init
echo "Line 1" > file.txt
git add file.txt
git commit -m "First commit"
echo "Line 2" >> file.txt
git add file.txt
git commit -m "Second commit"
echo "Line 3" >> file.txt
git add file.txt
git commit -m "Third commit"
NUM_COMMITS=3
# Run interactive rebase and squash commits
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use git rebase -i HEAD~$NUM_COMMITS and then edit the commit list to squash.

4

Show the final commit log with a single combined commit

Run git log --oneline to display the commit history. The output should show only one commit with a combined message from the three original commits.

Git

mkdir myproject
cd myproject
git init
echo "Line 1" > file.txt
git add file.txt
git commit -m "First commit"
echo "Line 2" >> file.txt
git add file.txt
git commit -m "Second commit"
echo "Line 3" >> file.txt
git add file.txt
git commit -m "Third commit"
NUM_COMMITS=3
git rebase -i HEAD~$NUM_COMMITS
# In the editor, change second and third 'pick' to 'squash' and save
# Now show the commit log
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use git log --oneline to see the combined commit message.