Gotcha: Git rebase can silently drop merge conflict resolution

When rebasing a branch that previously resolved merge conflicts, the conflicts reappear and previous resolution is lost.

Enable rerere to remember conflict resolutions:

# Enable rerere (reuse recorded resolution)
git config --global rerere.enabled true

# Now git remembers how you resolved each conflict
# When the same conflict appears during rebase, it auto-resolves

# View recorded resolutions
git rerere status  # Show current conflicts being tracked
git rerere diff    # Show how conflicts will be resolved

# If you resolved incorrectly, forget it
git rerere forget path/to/file

# Alternative: Use merge instead of rebase for long-lived branches
# Merges preserve conflict resolution history

# If you must rebase and conflicts are complex:
# 1. Before rebase, create a safety branch
git branch backup-before-rebase

# 2. Do the rebase
git rebase main

# 3. If it goes wrong
git rebase --abort  # Cancel entirely
# OR
git reset --hard backup-before-rebase  # Restore from backup

# Key insight: rebase replays commits one by one
# Each commit may re-encounter conflicts that were
# already resolved in the merge commit

When to avoid rebase:

• Branch has been shared/pushed (others may have based work on it)
• Branch has complex merge conflict resolutions
• Branch has many commits that all touch the same files

Rebase replays each commit individually. A merge commit that resolved conflicts is not replayed, so those resolutions are lost unless rerere remembers them.

Git workflow with rebasing