Another example of where the current implementation isn't working great A - B - C commit A makes changes to foo commit B changes the name of foo to bar commit C symlinks foo => bar Rebasing the commits and reordering them commit B changes the name of foo to bar commit C symlinks foo => bar commit A makes changes to foo is going to result in merge conflicts. The best way to achieve this ordering is actually doing multiple rebases. commit B changes the name of foo to bar commit A makes changes to foo commit C symlinks foo => bar followed by commit B changes the name of foo to bar commit C symlinks foo => bar commit A makes changes to foo I guess the difficulty that arises from reordering commits like this isn't unique to renames but it arguably results in a more hostile user experience. It requires an unusual amount of discipline and understanding of what is going on to resolve as well as how to avoid it.
