Git soft reset head how to#
Git soft reset head code#

A good use case for reverting is if you're working with another team member on the same feature branch and you want to undo a commit you made without compromising the git history. Reverting allows you to undo commits cleanly that have already been pushed to a remote branch. Image of git log after revert has been applied Image of commit message prompt after running git revert When a revert is run, git will prompt you to add a new commit with a helpful message explaining what got reverted.

Git soft reset head code#

Whereas resetting eradicates the commits from git history, reverting will create a brand new commit (at the end of the git history) with the reverted code changes.

However, they are different in how they achieve this functionality. The git revert command is similar to the reset command, in that they both 'undo' commits. Image of git log after reset has been applied Git Revert I go with this option when I need to drop a commit so I can start fresh from a certain point in my work. Hard resets are most beneficial when you want to completely undo a commit and you don't care about retaining the original code. 🚨 Warning: Performing a hard reset will eradicate your previous commits and your code revisions. To perform a hard reset you would run a similar command to the syntax above, but you would pass in the -hard flag.Įxamples of undoing the last two commits using a hard reset: In contrast to a soft reset is a 'hard' reset where the changes that are undone are completely removed and the files are put back into a 'clean' state. With a soft reset, the commits will be removed, but the revisions will be retained. Or put another way, a soft reset removes the commit history but preserves the changes.Ī soft reset can be helpful if, for example, you made some commits on the wrong branch, but you want to keep the work you did and move it over to a different branch. All this means is the code changes that were undone are now brought back to the working directory files. Running either command above is considered a 'soft' reset.

git reset HEAD~2 (Tells git to drop the last two commits).

git reset 899679c (Requires you to locate the commit hash from the log).

One way to do this is to run one of the two commands: Let's say we have a history log that looks like the image below and we want to undo the last two commits and go back to the third commit. not pushed up your changes to a remote branch) and you want to undo those changes. Git reset is best used when you have only made local commits (i.e. Once a reset is applied, all the changes before the specified commit are no longer a part of the history for a branch. The git reset command provides a way to reset a project back to a specified commit.

Use revert if you have a remote branch with commits and you want to undo a commit while still keeping things in sync and retaining the git history.

Use reset if you have only made local changes and you do NOT have a remote branch.

Although they have similar-sounding names, there are slight nuances to be aware of when deciding which option to go with. In order to properly explain this topic, it's important to understand the distinction and differences between reset and revert.

Git soft reset head how to#

This is the most flexible option, but despite the name, it doesn't modify files.Have you ever made some revisions to your code, committed those changes, and then wished you could undo the changes you just committed? Perhaps you pushed up some code to a remote branch for a feature you are working on and then realized that you want to remove the changes and go in a different direction? In this article, I will cover how to undo the mistakes 😲 that we inevitably make as developers.

git reset -mixed, which is the default, and keeps all files the same but unstages the changes.

Only use this if you know what you're doing.

git reset -hard, which will completely destroy any changes and remove them from the local directory.

git reset -soft, which will keep your files, and stage all changes back automatically.

They all rewrite Git history, and they all move the HEAD back, but they deal with the changes differently: There are three different kinds of resets in Git, and they all differ based on how they handle the commits that get left hanging. Note that this is different from git revert Works, but resetting the HEAD and then only staging the correct changes will achieve this. This can be very hard to figure out if you don't know how git reset Or perhaps you accidentally made a commit that included some changes you didn't want to track. Back to the previous commit, and then re-commit correctly.