After mangling a git rebase -i, I eventually got the code into the state I want.
$ git log
55c602ed1c (HEAD -> main)
6c3fa102c2 (detached-branch)
6ec87486d1
89dd40a86a
f6f4b6edb2
77742d9d69
32b67d2a01
...
The commit 55c602ed1c is exactly correct.
However, when I now call git rebase -i 6c3fa102c2 I get unexpected editor content:
pick 77742d9d69
pick f6f4b6edb2
pick 89dd40a86a
# Rebase 6c3fa102c2..55c602ed1c onto 6c3fa102c2 (3 commands)
#
# Commands:
# ...
Of course I was expecting to see
pick 6c3fa102c2
pick 55c602ed1c
# Rebase 6c3fa102c2..55c602ed1c onto 6c3fa102c2 (3 commands)
#
# Commands:
# ...
Now I quit the editor without saving and get a message and errors:
Auto-merging ...
CONFLICT ...
<more conflicts>
so I do git rebase --abort to get out of that, which leaves the branch in the correct state, but still unable to rebase.
How can I get back the normal rebasing function?
EDIT:
Removing reflog output, and removing the question, while adding new content and question.
$ git log --oneline --graph
* 55c602ed1c (HEAD -> main)
r|g\
r| * 6c3fa102c2 (detached-branch)
r| * 6ec87486d1
* g| 89dd40a86a
* g| f6f4b6edb2
* g| 77742d9d69
r|g/
* 32b67d2a01
The actual graph output is color coded red and green , so I prefixed |,/, and \ with a letter to indicate actual color.
For the record, the command used to create the final, good, commit 55c602ed1c were:
git checkout main
git merge detached-branch
and it required manual conflict resolution.
I have tried rebasing to the common ancestor 32b67d2a01, which is suggested in this answer to a similar question, but oddly neither the HEAD commit 55c602ed1c nor the common ancestor 32b67d2a01 appear in the list shown in the editor:
git rebase -i 32b67d2a01
pops up editor with
pick 77742d9d69
pick f6f4b6edb2
pick 89dd40a86a
pick 6ec87486d1
pick 6c3fa102c2
# Rebase 32b67d2a01..55c602ed1c onto 6ec87486d1 (5 commands)
#
# Commands:
Using a tilde as in the hint given by @eftshift0 (without understanding the principle behind it and not seeing it on the git man mage for rebase)
git rebase -i 32b67d2a01~
gives
pick 32b67d2a01
pick 77742d9d69
pick f6f4b6edb2
pick 89dd40a86a
pick 6ec87486d1
pick 6c3fa102c2
# Rebase db737eb68b..55c602ed1c onto 89dd40a86a (6 commands)
#
# Commands:
but still, the HEAD commit 55c602ed1c is not listed on the bottom.
If I go ahead and do the rebase with that selection, 55c602ed1c is ignored and I am asked to resolve conflicts all over again, which obviously I don't want to do because 55c602ed1c is already merged and satisfactory.
The new question is how can I remove the commits between but not including HEAD and the common ancestor, while keeping HEAD (obviously)?
Here is an answer to the final question:
git reset --soft 32b67d2a01
git commit -m "everything past 32b67d2a01 in a single shot"
That should work, no conflict to resolve. You are losing (and rewriting) history, of course, but I think that is the ultimate goal, right?