git pull --rebase

Question

Start situation (no unpushed changes, > indicates the current branch):

o C [> master][origin/master]
|
o B
|
o A
|
...

After a git fetch the log structure often looks like

o E [origin/master]
|
o C'
|
o B'
|
o D
|
| o C [>master]
| |
| o B
|/
o A
|
...

Now git rebase origin/master master often produces conflicts. Is git pull --rebase smarter and just uses git reset to make master also point to E if master==origin/master initially?

Answer 1

git pull --rebase is similar to what the following would do:

git fetch
git rebase

So in your case it will leave the repository like this:

o C [> master]
|
o B
|
o E [origin/master]
|
o C'
|
o B'
|
o D
|
o A
|
...

Note that the two commits you have are different from origin where re-created on top of commit E.