Un-commit or undo the most recent commit in Git using 'git reset'
— Git, Cheatsheet — 9 min read
If you have accidentally committed some changes that you shouldn't have or maybe committed changes to the wrong branch and are now wondering how to un-commit these changes from the git repo then git reset is a command that can come in handy.
With git reset, you have three options which are specificed using flags:
git reset --soft ...: Moves HEAD to a previous commit. Puts the changes back in Git's staging area as "staged" changes.git reset [--mixed] ...: This is the default. This option not only moves HEAD to a previous commit but also removes the changes from the Staging area and puts those changes further back in the Working Copy area as "un-staged" changes.git reset --hard ...: This is the most destructive of all three options and must be used carefully. This will move HEAD to a previous commit and also remove the changes from the Staging area as well as the Working Copy area so that they are no longer available anywhere.
TL;DR | Cheatsheet
git reset --soft
To soft reset the most recent commit, execute this command:
git reset --soft HEAD~This command will:
- Move HEAD to the previous commit
- Place changes in the Staging area
The above command is equivalent to:
git reset --soft HEAD~1So in order to move HEAD back two commits, you'll execute this command:
git reset --soft HEAD~2You can also specify the Commit ID to which HEAD should be moved back to, like this:
git reset --soft <commit-id>Lets look at an example for understanding how these commands work.
Consider a sample git repo where I have added 3 files: first.txt, second.txt and third.txt in three separate commits.
In the below screenshot of the git log command output, you'll notice three commits one after the other for each one of those files.
Now let's suppose, that my third commit where I added the file third.txt to the repo needs to reverted using a soft reset.
I'll execute git reset --soft HEAD~ and then do a git log.
You can see that the third commit is missing and we only have the first and second commit from before and HEAD is pointing to the second one(from before).
If you do a git status, you'll see that third.txt has been staged for commit in the Staging area.
If you checked this branch out in a different folder, the codebase will only have the changes from the first two commits meaning it'll only have two files, first.txt and second.txt.
Soft reset multiple commits
Instead of just one, you can undo the last two commits with a soft reset using this command:
git reset --soft HEAD~2This will move HEAD back two commits. Similarly, you can specify any number of commits you want to go back.
Lets execute this command on our sample git repo in its initial state with all three commits intact.
If you do a git log afterwards, you'll notice that HEAD has moved to the first commit.
If you do a git status, you'll notice that first.txt will be a committed file but second.txt and third.txt will end up as staged files in the Staging area.
Soft reset using a Commit ID
You can also replace HEAD with a commit id of the destination commit where you want HEAD to finally move to.
Again consider our sample git repo with all three commits intact.
In order to revert to the first commit, We can specify the commit id of the first commit in this way:
git reset --soft 2ca8389387c985ae466f2352cb3c9e1426c49a9fThis will have the same effect as our previous example of git reset --soft HEAD~2. HEAD will point to the first commit and second.txt and third.txt will be staged in the Staging area.
git reset [--mixed]
To perform a mixed reset on the most recent commit, execute this command:
git reset --mixed HEAD~You don't need to specify the --mixed flag because that is the default so you can simply do this:
git reset HEAD~This command will:
- Move HEAD to the previous commit.
- Remove the changes from the Staging area.
- Place the changes in the Working Copy area as "unstaged" changes.
The above command is equivalent to:
git reset HEAD~1So in order to move HEAD back two commits, you'll execute this command:
git reset HEAD~2You can also specify the Commit ID to which HEAD should be moved back to, like this:
git reset <commit-id>Again consider our sample git repo with all three commits intact.
We'll now perform a mixed reset by executing git reset HEAD~ and push HEAD back one commit to the previous one.
If you do a git log afterwards, you'll see that the third commit is missing and we only have the first and second commit from before and HEAD is pointing to the second one(from before).
If you do a git status, you'll notice that there are no changes staged in the Staging area. But you'll see that third.txt has been added as an "un-staged" file in the Working Copy area.
If you checked this branch out right now in a different folder, the codebase will only have the changes from the first two commits meaning it'll only have two files, first.txt and second.txt.
Mixed Reset with Multiple Commits
Instead of just one, you can undo the last two commits with a mixed reset using this command:
git reset HEAD~2This will move HEAD back two commits. Like this you can specify any number of commits you want to reset.
Again consider our sample git repo with all three commits intact and execute this command.
If you do a git log followed by a git status afterwards, you'll notice that HEAD points to the first commit so that first.txt is a committed file but second.txt and third.txt are "un-staged" files in the Working Copy area.
Mixed reset using a Commit ID
You can also replace HEAD with a commit id of the destination commit where you want HEAD to finally move to.
So for example, we can specify the commit id of the first commit in this way:
git reset 2ca8389387c985ae466f2352cb3c9e1426c49a9fThis will have the same effect as our previous example of git reset HEAD~2. HEAD will point to the first commit and second.txt and third.txt will be "un-staged" files in the Working Copy area.
git reset --hard
This is the most destructive of all three reset options since it removes the changes from the Committed snapshot, Staging area as well as the Working Copy.
To perform a hard reset on the most recent commit, execute this command:
git reset --hard HEAD~This command will:
- Move HEAD to the previous commit.
- Remove the changes from the Staging area.
- Remove the changes from the Working Copy.
The above command is equivalent to:
git reset --hard HEAD~1So in order to move HEAD back two commits, you'll execute this command:
git reset --hard HEAD~2You can also specify the Commit ID to which HEAD should be moved back to, like this:
git reset --hard <commit-id>Again consider our sample git repo with all three commits intact.
We'll perform a hard reset by executing git reset --hard HEAD~ and push HEAD back one commit to the previous one.
If you do a git log afterwards, you'll see that the third commit is missing and we only have the first and second commit from before and HEAD is pointing to the second one(from before).
If you do a git status, you'll notice that there are no changes staged in the Staging area or un-staged in the Working Copy area. Basically, third.txt is nowhere to be found. All changes from the third commit are completely lost.
If you checked this branch out right now in a different folder, the codebase will only have the changes from the first two commits meaning it'll only have two files, first.txt and second.txt.
Hard Reset with Multiple Commits
Instead of just one, you can undo the last two commits with a hard reset using this command:
git reset --hard HEAD~2This will move HEAD back two commits. Like this you can specify any number of commits you want to hard reset.
Again consider our sample git repo with all three commits intact and execute this command.
If you do a git log followed by a git status afterwards, you'll notice that HEAD points to the first commit so that first.txt is a committed file but second.txt and third.txt are nowhere to be found.
Hard Reset using a Commit ID
You can also replace HEAD with a commit id of the destination commit where you want HEAD to finally move to.
So for example, we can specify the commit id of the first commit in this way.
git reset --hard 2ca8389387c985ae466f2352cb3c9e1426c49a9fThis will have the same effect as our previous example of git reset --hard HEAD~2. HEAD will point to the first commit and second.txt and third.txt will be completely removed from everywhere.
Hope this helps!