[rwmj]

Interactive rebase [git rebase -i] is useful in open source projects where you want to present your change as a logical sequence of patches. In theory at least, this helps reviewers since you can present it as "first we make this code transformation which doesn't change the semantics, second we add this new function, third ...", and each step can be checked more easily than a single large patch.

When you start out making a change, you are feeling your way through what needs to be done, and it's not until you've done some experiments that you have an idea of the logical sequence you want to present. At that point you can start to use interactive rebase to split and combine individual changes, and change the order to make up the logical story you want to tell. Then you post this as a sequence of patches for reviewers, even though it really has no relationship to how you wrote the change.