If you’ve ever collaborated on a Git project, you’ve probably encountered the dreaded “rejected push” message. It happens when someone else — let’s call them Branddon — pushed their changes before you did. Your local branch and the remote branch have diverged, and now Git wants you to synchronize them before pushing your code.

Most developers instinctively type: git pull. But that’s where problems begin.

• The Problem with ‘git pull’
• The Better Solution: ‘git pull –rebase’
• Handling Merge Conflicts Gracefully
• Why ‘git pull –rebase’ Keeps Your History Clean
• Creating an Alias for Simplicity
• When You Might Still Use ‘git pull’
• Conclusion

The Problem with ‘git pull’

Let’s break down what happens behind the scenes. When you run git pull, Git performs two actions:

1. Fetches the latest commits from the remote branch.
2. Merges them into your local branch.

At first, that sounds fine — until you realize Git creates a merge commit to combine your work with the new changes. This automatically adds an unnecessary commit to your history.

Over time, these redundant “merge commits” pile up, creating a cluttered and confusing commit log. When you’re trying to debug a problem or trace a change, you’ll find yourself sifting through irrelevant commits just to get to meaningful ones.

The result?
A messy, nonlinear history that’s difficult to read and even harder to maintain.

The Better Solution: ‘git pull –rebase’

Instead of using the standard git pull, you can use git pull –rebase to achieve a much cleaner result. Here’s what happens instead:

1. Git temporarily sets aside your local commits.
2. It fetches the latest commits from the remote branch.
3. Then, Git reapplies your commits on top of the new changes — creating a linear, readable history.

This keeps your commit graph simple and avoids the unnecessary “merge commit” that standard git pull would create.

Here’s the key command:

git pull –rebase

With this approach, your history remains tidy and easier to follow — perfect for both solo and team development.

Handling Merge Conflicts Gracefully

Sometimes, even with rebase, you’ll encounter merge conflicts if both you and your teammate edited the same lines of code. Don’t worry — you still have full control.

When a conflict occurs, Git will pause and notify you to resolve it manually. You can then fix the issue in your editor, stage the resolved files, and continue with:

git rebase –continue

If you change your mind or things get messy, you can always back out safely:

git rebase –abort

This command reverts your repository to the exact state it was in before you started rebasing — no harm done.

Why ‘git pull –rebase’ Keeps Your History Clean

Let’s compare the two visually:

Using ‘git pull’ (default merge):

A — B — C (Your local commits)
       \
        D — E — F (Remote commits)
         \
          G (Merge commit)

Using ‘git pull –rebase’:

A — B — D — E — F — C (Your commits on top of remote commits)

Notice the difference?
With rebase, your history stays linear — no redundant merge commits, just a clear, chronological sequence of meaningful changes.

Creating an Alias for Simplicity

Typing git pull --rebase every time can get tedious. You can make it easier by setting up a Git alias:

git config –global alias.pr “pull –rebase”

Now, you can simply type:

git pr

This short alias gives you the same clean rebase behavior every time without extra typing.

When You Might Still Use ‘git pull’

There are rare cases where a merge commit is actually useful — for example, when merging long-lived feature branches where you want to preserve the exact branch structure. In everyday collaborative development, though, rebase keeps things simple and makes code review much smoother.

Conclusion

When working on shared branches, using git pull may seem harmless — but it often leads to messy, complicated histories filled with unnecessary merge commits. By switching to git pull –rebase, you maintain a clean, readable project history that’s easier to debug, review, and maintain.

If something goes wrong, remember, you can always recover with git rebase –abort.

So the next time you’re tempted to type git pull, pause and use git pull --rebase instead. Your teammates (and your future self) will thank you.

To learn more about Git and best practices for version control, visit the official Git documentation and explore advanced workflows, branching strategies, and collaboration techniques to elevate your development process.