What exactly does a git pull --rebase does

Question

What exactly happens when I run the command

git pull --rebase on master branch

Does this rewrite my master branch history

Is it a good way to pull changes or should we

 1. Git fetch 
 2. Git merge

possible duplicate of [git rebase vs git merge](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/804115/git-rebase-vs-git-merge) — Joe, Jul 04 '14 at 11:30
`rebase` ensures a linear history contrary to `merge`. It's a good idea to `rebase` when you want to have a cleaner history for one. — gravetii, Jul 04 '14 at 11:53

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 04 '14 at 13:49

When you git pull --rebase, a few things happen:

git fetch origin master

-just using origin/master as an example
git rebase origin/master
- moves all of your commits after the commits on origin/master

At this point, you can now push to origin and your commits will be applied on top of all other commits cleanly.

Without the --rebase flag, you'd end up with a merge commit; one that has two parents: your master branch and the work on origin/master

Here are a few helpful resources:

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