Merge pull request #1484 from HonkingGoose/feature/add-section-dropping-commits-with-rebase

Author: ben

book/07-git-tools/sections/rewriting-history.asc

@@ -299,6 +299,27 @@ This changes the SHA-1s of the three most recent commits in your list, so make s
 Notice that the last commit (`f7f3f6d`) in the list is unchanged.
 Despite this commit being shown in the script, because it was marked as ``pick'' and was applied prior to any rebase changes, Git leaves the commit unmodified.
 
+==== Deleting a commit
+
+If you want to get rid of a commit, you can delete it using the `rebase -i` script.
+In the list of commits, put the word ``drop'' before the commit you want to delete (or just delete that line from the rebase script):
+
+[source,console]
+----
+pick 461cb2a This commit is OK
+drop 5aecc10 This commit is broken
+----
+
+Because of the way Git builds commit objects, deleting or altering a commit will cause the rewriting of all the commits that follow it.
+The further back in your repo's history you go, the more commits will need to be recreated.
+This can cause lots of merge conflicts if you have many commits later in the sequence that depend on the one you just deleted.
+
+If you get partway through a rebase like this and decide it's not a good idea, you can always stop.
+Type `git rebase --abort`, and your repo will be returned to the state it was in before you started the rebase.
+
+If you finish a rebase and decide it's not what you want, you can use `git reflog` to recover an earlier version of your branch.
+See <<ch10-git-internals#_data_recovery>> for more information on the `reflog` command.
+
 [NOTE]
 ====
 Drew DeVault made a practical hands-on guide with exercises to learn how to use `git rebase`.