Here are two simple versions of the checkout and rebase subcommands I use to perform faster branch updates and merges. Check out the last visited branch git checkout - This command is useful if, let’s say, for example, you were on master and you checked out to a new feature branch. You work on the feature and once you’re done, you want to switch back to master, get remote changes and then pull them in your feature branch as well, so you have the latest changes and check for any integration conflicts with other people’s work.