Git: Merge in only one commit

Question

Usually, I work with branches in Git, but I don't like to see hundreds of branches in my working tree (Git history). I'm wondering if there is a method in Git to "join" all commits in a branch in only one commit (ideally with a clear commit message).

Something like this:

git checkout -b branch <some work> git commit -a -m "commit 1" <some work> git commit -a -m "commit 2" <some work> git commit -a -m "commit 3" git checkout master git SUPER-JOIN branch -m "super commit" 

After this, only "super commit" will exist in the git log.

Answer 1

It sounds like you're looking for the --squash option of git-merge:

git checkout master git merge --squash branch -m "super commit" 

Answer 2

This can be done using git rebase and squash, or using git merge --squash, see

Git merge flattening

and

git: squash/fixup earlier commit