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How can I squash my last X commits together using git?

I have a project hosted on GitHub and I have a local clone. I have a load of small commits that I have already pushed up to GitHub. This has all been done using the default *master branch.

I got confused between merge --squash and rebase etc... What is the most straightforward way of combining several historial commits in to one commit so that it pushes up to GitHub?

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Reset to default
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Before starting, you should make sure that git status is clean (i.e. there's no output from that command) to avoid losing work. The simplest way to do what you want is probably:

git reset --soft <LAST-COMMIT-THAT'S-OK>
git commit -m 'Many squashed commits'
git push --force origin master

You should bear in mind that this is rewriting history (that's why you need the --force option to git push) so you should avoid this if anyone else might have cloned or pulled from your repository. For some more alternatives, see this question and its answers:

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    What are the repercussions of doing this if other branches regularly pull from the repo (fast forwarding only)?
    – Gabe
    Commented Nov 21, 2011 at 15:23
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    @whoami: If someone else pulls that branch, they will see (forced update) and git will refuse to update their branch. They then need to (a) make sure that all their work is committed (b) typically either rebase (e.g. with git rebase origin/master) or reset their branch to the remote-tracking branch version that's just been force-updated (e.g. with git reset --hard origin/master). Unless you're happy explaining to people what to do, it's definitely best not to force-push rewritten history.
    – Mark Longair
    Commented Nov 21, 2011 at 15:30
  • They will all see that their local branches and the remote have diverged and will have to merge the changes in rather than just fast forward.
    – Noufal Ibrahim
    Commented Nov 21, 2011 at 15:30
  • @Noufal Ibrahim: The problem with merging in that situation is that they will still have all the small commits in their merged master branch, and might push them back to the repository.
    – Mark Longair
    Commented Nov 21, 2011 at 15:33
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    @whoami: Yes, it's best to restrict history rewriting to commits that you haven't pushed yet. If you know exactly that you want to squash all the last N commits, reset --soft and committing is probably easier, but if you want to selectively squash and reorder commits, using git rebase -i will give you that flexibility. (Also it depends which commands you're more familiar with...)
    – Mark Longair
    Commented Nov 21, 2011 at 15:45

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