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Rebase

Rebase and merge both integrate changes from one branch into another, but they work differently:
MergeRebase
Commit hashesUnchanged — history is not rewrittenUpdated — commits are re-applied on top of the target branch
HistoryPreserves the original branch structure with a merge commitProduces a linear, cleaner history

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When to rebase

Suppose Developer A is working on the develop branch while the team continues pushing commits to main. Developer A wants to keep develop up to date with main without creating a merge commit. Instead of merging: 
git merge main
Rebase develop on top of main: 
git checkout develop
git rebase main
This re-applies all develop commits on top of the latest main commits, resulting in a linear history as if the develop work had started from the current tip of main.
Rebasing rewrites commit hashes. Never rebase branches that have been pushed to a shared remote unless all collaborators are aware and prepared to handle the rewritten history.

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Interactive rebasing

Interactive rebase lets you modify the Git history before applying it — for example, combining multiple commits into one (squashing). Suppose you have these commits: 
docs: create first story
docs: create second story
docs: create programming
docs: create same story 1
docs: edit same-story
docs: more changes to same-story
docs: more more changes to same-story
To squash the latest 3 commits into the 4th commit, rebase the last 4: 
git rebase -i HEAD~4
Git opens an editor listing the four commits. Mark the three commits you want to squash with squash (or s) instead of pick. After saving, they are combined into one commit. Result: 
docs: create first story
docs: create second story
docs: create programming
squashed latest 3 commits into here

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Cherry-pick

Cherry-pick lets you apply a specific commit from one branch onto another branch, without merging all other changes from that branch.

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When to cherry-pick

Suppose Developer A is on main and wants only the changes from the "docs: edit second story" commit on develop.
1

Identify the commit hash

git log develop --oneline
Note the hash of the commit you want, e.g. abc1234.
2

Check out the target branch

git checkout main
3

Cherry-pick the commit

git cherry-pick <commit-id>
Git creates a copy of that commit on top of the current branch.
Cherry-pick only brings in the changes from the selected commit, not the full branch history. If you encounter merge conflicts, resolve them manually and complete the cherry-pick.

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