title: git rebase onto remote updates
body: <p>I work with a small team that uses git for source code management.  Recently, we have been doing topic branches to keep track of features then merging them into master locally then pushing them to a central git repository on a remote server.  This works great when no changes have been made in master:  I create my topic branch, commit it, merge it into master, then push.  Hooray.</p>
  
  <p>However, if someone has pushed to origin before I do, my commits are not fast-forward.  Thus a merge commit ensues.  This also happens when a topic branch needs to merge with master locally to ensure my changes work with the code as of now.  So, we end up with merge commits everywhere and a git log rivaling a friendship bracelet.  </p>
  
  <p>So, rebasing is the obvious choice.  What I would like is to: </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>create topic branches holding several commits</li>
  <li>checkout master and pull (fast-forward because i haven't committed to master)</li>
  <li>rebase topic branches onto the new head of master</li>
  <li>rebase topics against master(so the topics start at masters head), bringing master up to my topic head</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>My way of doing this currently is listed below:</p>
  
  <pre><code>git checkout master
  git rebase master topic_1
  git rebase topic_1 topic_2
  git checkout master
  git rebase topic_2
  git branch -d topic_1 topic_2
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Is there a faster way to do this?</p>