'\" t
.\"     Title: git-absorb
.\"    Author: [see the "AUTHOR" section]
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets vsnapshot <http://docbook.sf.net/>
.\"      Date: 03/27/2026
.\"    Manual: git absorb
.\"    Source: git-absorb
.\"  Language: English
.\"
.TH "GIT\-ABSORB" "1" "03/27/2026" "git\-absorb" "git absorb"
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.SH "NAME"
git-absorb \- Automatically absorb staged changes into your current branch
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.sp
.nf
\fIgit absorb\fR [FLAGS] [OPTIONS]
.fi
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.sp
You have a feature branch with a few commits\&. Your teammate reviewed the branch and pointed out a few bugs\&. You have fixes for the bugs, but you don\(cqt want to shove them all into an opaque commit that says fixes, because you believe in atomic commits\&. Instead of manually finding commit SHAs for git commit \-\-fixup, or running a manual interactive rebase, do this:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ git add $FILES_YOU_FIXED

$ git absorb \-\-and\-rebase
  (or)
$ git absorb
$ git rebase \-i \-\-autosquash master
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
git absorb will automatically identify which commits are safe to modify, and which indexed changes belong to each of those commits\&. It will then write fixup! commits for each of those changes\&. You can check its output manually if you don\(cqt trust it, and then fold the fixups into your feature branch with git\(cqs built\-in autosquash functionality\&.
.SH "FLAGS"
.PP
\-r, \-\-and\-rebase
.RS 4
Run rebase if successful\&. See also the REBASE_OPTIONS below\&.
.RE
.PP
\-n, \-\-dry\-run
.RS 4
Don\(cqt make any actual changes
.RE
.PP
\-\-no\-limit
.RS 4
Remove absorb stack limit\&. Has no effect when used with
\-\-base

This will consider all commits until either root, merge commit, or a commit by other author (unless
\-\-force\-author
is used)

Which is why you should be careful when using this flag\&.
.RE
.PP
\-\-force\-author
.RS 4
Generate fixups to commits not made by you
.RE
.PP
\-\-force\-detach
.RS 4
Generate fixups even when on a non\-branch (detached) HEAD
.RE
.PP
\-F, \-\-one\-fixup\-per\-commit
.RS 4
Only generate one fixup per commit
.RE
.PP
\-f, \-\-force
.RS 4
Skip all safety checks as if all \-\-force\-* flags were given\&. See those flags to understand the full effect of supplying \-\-force\&.
.RE
.PP
\-s, \-\-squash
.RS 4
Create squash commits instead of fixup commits\&.

When this flag is used, "fixup commit" may be read as "squash commit" throughout the documentation\&. All configuration relating to fixup commits will apply to the squash commits instead\&.
.RE
.PP
\-w, \-\-whole\-file
.RS 4
Match the first commit touching the same file as the current hunk\&. Use this with care!
.RE
.PP
\-h, \-\-help
.RS 4
Prints help information
.RE
.PP
\-V, \-\-version
.RS 4
Prints version information
.RE
.PP
\-v, \-\-verbose
.RS 4
Display more output
.RE
.SH "OPTIONS"
.PP
\-b <base>, \-\-base <base>
.RS 4
Use this commit as the base of the absorb stack
.RE
.PP
\-m <MESSAGE>, \-\-message <MESSAGE>
.RS 4
A simple commit message body that will be used for
\fBall\fR
generated fixup commits\&.
.RE
.PP
\-\-gen\-completions <SHELL>
.RS 4
Generate completions [possible values: bash, fish, nushell, zsh, powershell, elvish]
.RE
.PP
\-\- <REBASE_OPTIONS>
.RS 4
Options to pass to git rebase after generating commits\&. Must be the last arguments and the
\-\-
must be present\&. Only valid when
\-\-and\-rebase
is used\&.
.RE
.SH "USAGE"
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 1.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  1." 4.2
.\}
git add
any changes that you want to absorb\&. By design,
git absorb
will only consider content in the git index\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 2.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  2." 4.2
.\}
git absorb\&. This will create a sequence of commits on
HEAD\&. Each commit will have a
fixup!
message indicating the message (if unique) or SHA of the commit it should be squashed into\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 3.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  3." 4.2
.\}
If you are satisfied with the output,
git rebase \-i \-\-autosquash
to squash the
fixup!
commits into their predecessors\&. You can set the
GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR
environment variable if you don\(cqt need to edit the rebase TODO file\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 4.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  4." 4.2
.\}
If you are not satisfied (or if something bad happened),
git reset \-\-soft PRE_ABSORB_HEAD
to the pre\-absorption commit to recover your old state\&. (You can also find the commit in question with
git reflog\&.) And if you think
git absorb
is at fault, please
file an issue\&.
.RE
.SH "CONFIGURATION"
.SS "STACK SIZE"
.sp
When run without \-\-base, git\-absorb will only search for candidate commits to fixup within a certain range (by default 10)\&. If you get an error like this:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
WARN stack limit reached, limit: 10
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
edit your local or global \&.gitconfig and add the following section:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
[absorb]
    maxStack=50 # Or any other reasonable value for your project
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
Stack size can also be disabled temporarily for one command (see \-\-no\-limit)
.SS "ONE FIXUP PER FIXABLE COMMIT"
.sp
By default, git\-absorb will generate separate fixup commits for every absorbable hunk\&. To always generate only 1 fixup commit for all hunks that absorb into the same commit, edit your local or global \&.gitconfig and add the following section:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
[absorb]
    oneFixupPerCommit = true
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.SS "AUTO\-STAGE ALL CHANGES IF NOTHING STAGED"
.sp
By default, git\-absorb will only consider files that you\(cqve staged to the index via git add\&. However, sometimes one wants to try and absorb from all changes, which would require to stage them first via git add \&.\&. To avoid this extra step, set
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
[absorb]
    autoStageIfNothingStaged = true
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
which tells git\-absorb, when no changes are staged, to auto\-stage them all, create fixup commits where possible, and unstage remaining changes from the index\&.
.SS "FIXUP TARGET ALWAYS SHA"
.sp
By default, git\-absorb will create fixup commits with their messages pointing to the target commit\(cqs summary, and if there are duplicate summaries, will fall back to pointing to the target\(cqs SHA\&. Instead, can always point to the target\(cqs SHA via:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
[absorb]
    fixupTargetAlwaysSHA = true
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.SS "GENERATE FIXUPS FOR COMMITS NOT AUTHORED BY YOU"
.sp
By default, git\-absorb will only generate fixup commits for commits that were authored by you\&. To always generate fixups for any author\(cqs commits, edit your local or global \&.gitconfig and add the following section:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
[absorb]
    forceAuthor = true
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.SS "GENERATE FIXUPS ON DETACHED HEAD"
.sp
By default, git\-absorb will not generate fixup commits when HEAD is not a branch ("is detached")\&. To always generate fixups on detached HEADs, edit your local or global \&.gitconfig and add the following section:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
[absorb]
    forceDetach = true
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.SS "GENERATE SQUASH COMMITS INSTEAD OF FIXUPS"
.sp
By default, git\-absorb will generate fixup commits\&. To instead generate squash commits, edit your local or global \&.gitconfig and add the following section:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
[absorb]
    createSquashCommits = true
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
When this option is set, "fixup commit" may be read as "squash commit" throughout the documentation\&. All configuration relating to fixup commits will apply to the squash commits instead\&.
.SH "GITHUB PROJECT"
.sp
https://github\&.com/tummychow/git\-absorb
.SH "AUTHOR"
.sp
Stephen Jung <tummychow511@gmail\&.com>