Let me tell you 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 between 𝐆𝐢𝐭 𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞 and 𝐆𝐢𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞.
𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘎𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘶𝘴𝘦 ‘𝘨𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘦’ 𝘰𝘳 ‘𝘨𝘪𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦’.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬.

𝐆𝐢𝐭 𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞
This creates a new commit G’ in the main branch. G’ ties the histories of both main and feature branches.

Git merge is 𝐧𝐨𝐧-𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞. Neither the main nor the feature branch is changed.

𝐆𝐢𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞
Git rebase moves the feature branch histories to the head of the main branch. It creates new commits E’, F’, and G’ for each commit in the feature branch.

The benefit of rebase is that it has 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲.

Rebase can be dangerous if “the golden rule of git rebase” is not followed.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐑𝐮𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐢𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞
Never use it on public branches!