Final answer:
To squash all commits on a Git branch, the interactive rebase command is used.
After navigating to your repository and checking out the branch, use git rebase -i followed by the commit hash before the first commit on your branch. Resolve conflicts if they arise and conclude with a force push to the remote repository.
Step-by-step explanation:
To squash all commits on a branch in Git, you can use the interactive rebase feature. This process will combine all the commit history into a single commit.
To start, you'll need to identify the commit hash of the first commit in your branch or use the commit where your branch diverges from the main branch (often master or main). Here are the steps:
- Open a terminal (or Git Bash if you're on Windows).
- Navigate to your Git repository with the branch you want to squash.
- Check out the branch you want to squash if you're not already on it using git checkout your-branch-name.
- Type git rebase -i <commit_hash> where <commit_hash> is the hash of the commit just before the first commit you made on your branch.
- An editor will open with a list of commits. Change 'pick' to 'squash' at the beginning of each commit line you want to squash. For the first commit, you should leave it as 'pick'.
- Save and close the editor. If you're squashing a lot of commits, Git might stop and ask you to resolve conflicts along the way. Resolve as necessary and continue with git rebase --continue.
- Finally, if everything is successful, you may want to force push your changes to the remote repository using git push origin your-branch-name --force.
Note: Force pushing is destructive and can rewrite history. It's recommended to ensure that no other developers are working on the branch or that all parties are aware of the rebase.