Running `git pull --rebase`, what does it rebase against?

Question

I see a lot of examples of:

git pull --rebase

but I am left wondering what branch is merged into the current branch. Shouldn't it be git pull --rebase <master> or git pull --rebase <dev>?

Answer 1

It first fetches origin/theBranch, then rebases your changes on top of origin/theBranch.

---

With a sketch :

• before git pull --rebase :

  *--*--*--*--A <- origin/theBranch
               \
                M--Y <- theBranch   # your local branch
  

• git pull --rebase step 1 : git fetch

  *--*--*--*--A--B--C--D <- origin/theBranch
               \
                M--Y <- theBranch
  

• git pull --rebase step 2 : git rebase origin/theBranch

  *--*--*--*--A--B--C--D <- origin/theBranch
                        \
                         M'--Y' <- theBranch