[u801e]

> Using a rebase to update from master will cause conflicts for anyone else working on the PR branch.

The best way to handle that is to run git stash save, git fetch origin, then run git rebase @{u} to rebase your local branch on top of the new upstream branch. Then run git stash pop to apply any uncommitted changes.

> Doing a typical “git pull” in this situation will lead to merge conflicts

This is why I never use git pull, and always run git fetch instead. This allows me decide whether I want to merge the upstream changes, rebase on top of them, or just run git reset --hard to just use the upstream branch as is.

> Once you rebase, that commit hash will no longer point to anything.

Unless git gc deleted the dangling commits (along associated trees and boobs), the hash value will still show the commit. In fact, it's possible to show a diff from that commit to the corresponding commit in the rebased branch.