GIT-RESET(1) Git Manual GIT-RESET(1)NAMEgit-reset - Reset current HEAD to the specified state
SYNOPSIS
git reset [--mixed | --soft | --hard] [-q] [<commit>]
git reset [-q] [<commit>] [--] <paths>...
DESCRIPTION
Sets the current head to the specified commit and optionally resets the
index and working tree to match.
This command is useful if you notice some small error in a recent
commit (or set of commits) and want to redo that part without showing
the undo in the history.
If you want to undo a commit other than the latest on a branch,
git-revert(1) is your friend.
The second form with paths is used to revert selected paths in the
index from a given commit, without moving HEAD.
OPTIONS--mixed
Resets the index but not the working tree (i.e., the changed
files are preserved but not marked for commit) and reports what
has not been updated. This is the default action.
--soft Does not touch the index file nor the working tree at all, but
requires them to be in a good order. This leaves all your
changed files "Changes to be committed", as git-status(1) would
put it.
--hard Matches the working tree and index to that of the tree being
switched to. Any changes to tracked files in the working tree
since <commit> are lost.
-q Be quiet, only report errors.
<commit>
Commit to make the current HEAD. If not given defaults to HEAD.
EXAMPLES
Undo a commit and redo
$ git commit ...
$ git reset --soft HEAD^ (1)
$ edit (2)
$ git commit -a -c ORIG_HEAD (3)
1. This is most often done when you remembered what you just
committed is incomplete, or you misspelled your commit message,
or both. Leaves working tree as it was before "reset".
2. Make corrections to working tree files.
3. "reset" copies the old head to .git/ORIG_HEAD; redo the
commit by starting with its log message. If you do not need to
edit the message further, you can give -C option instead.
See also the --amend option to git-commit(1).
Undo commits permanently
$ git commit ...
$ git reset --hard HEAD~3 (1)
1. The last three commits (HEAD, HEAD^, and HEAD~2) were bad and
you do not want to ever see them again. Do not do this if you
have already given these commits to somebody else.
Undo a commit, making it a topic branch
$ git branch topic/wip (1)
$ git reset --hard HEAD~3 (2)
$ git checkout topic/wip (3)
1. You have made some commits, but realize they were premature
to be in the "master" branch. You want to continue polishing
them in a topic branch, so create "topic/wip" branch off of the
current HEAD.
2. Rewind the master branch to get rid of those three commits.
3. Switch to "topic/wip" branch and keep working.
Undo add
$ edit (1)
$ git add frotz.c filfre.c
$ mailx (2)
$ git reset (3)
$ git pull git://info.example.com/ nitfol (4)
1. You are happily working on something, and find the changes in
these files are in good order. You do not want to see them when
you run "git diff", because you plan to work on other files and
changes with these files are distracting.
2. Somebody asks you to pull, and the changes sounds worthy of
merging.
3. However, you already dirtied the index (i.e. your index does
not match the HEAD commit). But you know the pull you are going
to make does not affect frotz.c nor filfre.c, so you revert the
index changes for these two files. Your changes in working tree
remain there.
4. Then you can pull and merge, leaving frotz.c and filfre.c
changes still in the working tree.
Undo a merge or pull
$ git pull (1)
Auto-merging nitfol
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in nitfol
Automatic merge failed/prevented; fix up by hand
$ git reset --hard (2)
$ git pull . topic/branch (3)
Updating from 41223... to 13134...
Fast forward
$ git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD (4)
1. Try to update from the upstream resulted in a lot of
conflicts; you were not ready to spend a lot of time merging
right now, so you decide to do that later.
2. "pull" has not made merge commit, so "git reset --hard" which
is a synonym for "git reset --hard HEAD" clears the mess from
the index file and the working tree.
3. Merge a topic branch into the current branch, which resulted
in a fast forward.
4. But you decided that the topic branch is not ready for public
consumption yet. "pull" or "merge" always leaves the original
tip of the current branch in ORIG_HEAD, so resetting hard to it
brings your index file and the working tree back to that state,
and resets the tip of the branch to that commit.
Interrupted workflow
Suppose you are interrupted by an urgent fix request while you
are in the middle of a large change. The files in your working
tree are not in any shape to be committed yet, but you need to
get to the other branch for a quick bugfix.
$ git checkout feature ;# you were working in "feature" branch and
$ work work work ;# got interrupted
$ git commit -a -m "snapshot WIP" (1)
$ git checkout master
$ fix fix fix
$ git commit ;# commit with real log
$ git checkout feature
$ git reset --soft HEAD^ ;# go back to WIP state (2)
$ git reset (3)
1. This commit will get blown away so a throw-away log message
is OK.
2. This removes the WIP commit from the commit history, and sets
your working tree to the state just before you made that
snapshot.
3. At this point the index file still has all the WIP changes
you committed as snapshot WIP. This updates the index to show
your WIP files as uncommitted.
Reset a single file in the index
Suppose you have added a file to your index, but later decide
you do not want to add it to your commit. You can remove the
file from the index while keeping your changes with git reset.
$ git reset -- frotz.c (1)
$ git commit -m "Commit files in index" (2)
$ git add frotz.c (3)
1. This removes the file from the index while keeping it in the
working directory.
2. This commits all other changes in the index.
3. Adds the file to the index again.
AUTHOR
Written by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> and Linus Torvalds
<torvalds@osdl.org>
DOCUMENTATION
Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
GIT
Part of the git(7) suite
Git 1.5.5.2 10/21/2008 GIT-RESET(1)
