Prepositions in IT Collocations

"Rebase onto" — the correct preposition with rebase:

Rebase onto is the standard prepositional collocation. When you rebase, you are replaying your commits on top of a new base — hence "onto." Git itself uses this language: git rebase onto main.

Git preposition collocations:

• rebase onto → replay commits on top of a new base: "Rebase onto main"
• merge into → integrate one branch into another: "Merge the feature branch into main"
• commit to → save changes to a branch or repo: "Commit to the feature branch"
• push to → upload commits to a remote: "Push to origin"
• pull from → download changes from a remote: "Pull from upstream"

"Into" vs "onto":
You merge into (the branches become one, flowing together). You rebase onto (you position yourself on top of something). This mirrors the physical metaphors: "merge" = confluence; "rebase" = a new foundation.

"Depend on" — the fixed prepositional collocation:

Depend on is a fixed prepositional verb — the preposition "on" is obligatory in English. You cannot say "depend from" or "depend of" — these are direct translations from other languages (French: "dépendre de", Ukrainian: "залежати від") that don't work in English.

Dependency vocabulary with correct prepositions:

• depend on a service / a library / a team → fixed: "The API depends on Redis"
• rely on X → synonym: "The service relies on the database"
• integrate with X → connect to an external service: "Integrate with Stripe", "integrate with a third-party API"
• connect to X → establish connection: "Connect to the database", "connect to the message broker"

Dependency noun forms:
"A dependency on X" (not "a dependency of X"). "The service has a hard dependency on Redis." "We need to reduce our dependency on this third-party library."

"Migrate to" — the standard preposition for cloud migration:

Migrate to is the correct collocation for moving to a new platform, cloud provider, or system. The preposition "to" indicates direction/destination.

Migration and deployment prepositions:

• migrate to AWS / GCP / Azure → move to a new provider
• deploy to production / staging → release to an environment: "Deploy to production"
• switch from X to Y → change from one to another: "Switch from Postgres to MySQL"
• move from monolith to microservices → directional change
• run on Kubernetes / EC2 / Docker → the platform it operates on: "The service runs on Kubernetes"

"To" vs "into":
"Deploy to production" = move code to that environment. "Deploy into" is occasionally used but sounds awkward. "On" implies it's already there: "It runs on AWS" (current state) vs "migrating to AWS" (action in progress).

"Break with" in software — when a change causes incompatibility:

Break with (something) in software means to become incompatible with it — typically when a dependency changes its API. This is the correct preposition in this context.

Coupling and compatibility vocabulary:

• break with an interface / a contract → become incompatible when the other side changes
• break into → completely different meaning: gain unauthorised access ("break into the system")
• couple with → be closely linked to: "tightly coupled with the database"
• decouple from → remove a dependency: "We need to decouple this service from the payment module"
• depend on → have a dependency

Breaking change vocabulary:

• breaking change → a change that breaks backward compatibility
• backward-compatible → old clients still work with the new version
• semantic versioning (SemVer): major.minor.patch — major version bump signals a breaking change

"Check in" — different meanings depending on context:

This question highlights that "check in" has two distinct meanings in software:

1. "Check in" (version control, old terminology):
In older VCS systems (SVN, CVS, Perforce), you check in code to submit it to the repository. The opposite is check out (get a copy). Git uses "commit" and "push" instead, but "check in" persists in many teams.

2. "Check [something] against" (verify compatibility):
The sentence structure is "check X against Y" = verify X is compatible with / correct relative to Y: "Check your implementation against our spec."

Related "check" collocations:

• check in code → commit to VCS (legacy terminology; Git users say "commit" and "push")
• check out a branch → git checkout branch-name
• check against a spec / a contract → verify compatibility
• run a check → execute a validation or test
• health check → automated endpoint that confirms a service is alive