1git-reset(1) 2============ 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-reset - Reset current HEAD to the specified state 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'git reset' [-q] [<tree-ish>] [--] <paths>... 12'git reset' (--patch | -p) [<tree-ish>] [--] [<paths>...] 13'git reset' [--soft | --mixed [-N] | --hard | --merge | --keep] [-q] [<commit>] 14 15DESCRIPTION 16----------- 17In the first and second form, copy entries from `<tree-ish>` to the index. 18In the third form, set the current branch head (`HEAD`) to `<commit>`, 19optionally modifying index and working tree to match. 20The `<tree-ish>`/`<commit>` defaults to `HEAD` in all forms. 21 22'git reset' [-q] [<tree-ish>] [--] <paths>...:: 23 This form resets the index entries for all `<paths>` to their 24 state at `<tree-ish>`. (It does not affect the working tree or 25 the current branch.) 26+ 27This means that `git reset <paths>` is the opposite of `git add 28<paths>`. 29+ 30After running `git reset <paths>` to update the index entry, you can 31use linkgit:git-checkout[1] to check the contents out of the index to 32the working tree. 33Alternatively, using linkgit:git-checkout[1] and specifying a commit, you 34can copy the contents of a path out of a commit to the index and to the 35working tree in one go. 36 37'git reset' (--patch | -p) [<tree-ish>] [--] [<paths>...]:: 38 Interactively select hunks in the difference between the index 39 and `<tree-ish>` (defaults to `HEAD`). The chosen hunks are applied 40 in reverse to the index. 41+ 42This means that `git reset -p` is the opposite of `git add -p`, i.e. 43you can use it to selectively reset hunks. See the ``Interactive Mode'' 44section of linkgit:git-add[1] to learn how to operate the `--patch` mode. 45 46'git reset' [<mode>] [<commit>]:: 47 This form resets the current branch head to `<commit>` and 48 possibly updates the index (resetting it to the tree of `<commit>`) and 49 the working tree depending on `<mode>`. If `<mode>` is omitted, 50 defaults to `--mixed`. The `<mode>` must be one of the following: 51+ 52-- 53--soft:: 54 Does not touch the index file or the working tree at all (but 55 resets the head to `<commit>`, just like all modes do). This leaves 56 all your changed files "Changes to be committed", as `git status` 57 would put it. 58 59--mixed:: 60 Resets the index but not the working tree (i.e., the changed files 61 are preserved but not marked for commit) and reports what has not 62 been updated. This is the default action. 63+ 64If `-N` is specified, removed paths are marked as intent-to-add (see 65linkgit:git-add[1]). 66 67--hard:: 68 Resets the index and working tree. Any changes to tracked files in the 69 working tree since `<commit>` are discarded. 70 71--merge:: 72 Resets the index and updates the files in the working tree that are 73 different between `<commit>` and `HEAD`, but keeps those which are 74 different between the index and working tree (i.e. which have changes 75 which have not been added). 76 If a file that is different between `<commit>` and the index has 77 unstaged changes, reset is aborted. 78+ 79In other words, `--merge` does something like a `git read-tree -u -m <commit>`, 80but carries forward unmerged index entries. 81 82--keep:: 83 Resets index entries and updates files in the working tree that are 84 different between `<commit>` and `HEAD`. 85 If a file that is different between `<commit>` and `HEAD` has local 86 changes, reset is aborted. 87-- 88 89If you want to undo a commit other than the latest on a branch, 90linkgit:git-revert[1] is your friend. 91 92 93OPTIONS 94------- 95 96-q:: 97--quiet:: 98--no-quiet:: 99 Be quiet, only report errors. The default behavior is set by the 100 `reset.quiet` config option. `--quiet` and `--no-quiet` will 101 override the default behavior. 102 103 104EXAMPLES 105-------- 106 107Undo add:: 108+ 109------------ 110$ edit <1> 111$ git add frotz.c filfre.c 112$ mailx <2> 113$ git reset <3> 114$ git pull git://info.example.com/ nitfol <4> 115------------ 116+ 117<1> You are happily working on something, and find the changes 118 in these files are in good order. You do not want to see them 119 when you run `git diff`, because you plan to work on other files 120 and changes with these files are distracting. 121<2> Somebody asks you to pull, and the changes sound worthy of merging. 122<3> However, you already dirtied the index (i.e. your index does 123 not match the `HEAD` commit). But you know the pull you are going 124 to make does not affect `frotz.c` or `filfre.c`, so you revert the 125 index changes for these two files. Your changes in working tree 126 remain there. 127<4> Then you can pull and merge, leaving `frotz.c` and `filfre.c` 128 changes still in the working tree. 129 130Undo a commit and redo:: 131+ 132------------ 133$ git commit ... 134$ git reset --soft HEAD^ <1> 135$ edit <2> 136$ git commit -a -c ORIG_HEAD <3> 137------------ 138+ 139<1> This is most often done when you remembered what you 140 just committed is incomplete, or you misspelled your commit 141 message, or both. Leaves working tree as it was before "reset". 142<2> Make corrections to working tree files. 143<3> "reset" copies the old head to `.git/ORIG_HEAD`; redo the 144 commit by starting with its log message. If you do not need to 145 edit the message further, you can give `-C` option instead. 146+ 147See also the `--amend` option to linkgit:git-commit[1]. 148 149Undo a commit, making it a topic branch:: 150+ 151------------ 152$ git branch topic/wip <1> 153$ git reset --hard HEAD~3 <2> 154$ git checkout topic/wip <3> 155------------ 156+ 157<1> You have made some commits, but realize they were premature 158 to be in the `master` branch. You want to continue polishing 159 them in a topic branch, so create `topic/wip` branch off of the 160 current `HEAD`. 161<2> Rewind the master branch to get rid of those three commits. 162<3> Switch to `topic/wip` branch and keep working. 163 164Undo commits permanently:: 165+ 166------------ 167$ git commit ... 168$ git reset --hard HEAD~3 <1> 169------------ 170+ 171<1> The last three commits (`HEAD`, `HEAD^`, and `HEAD~2`) were bad 172 and you do not want to ever see them again. Do *not* do this if 173 you have already given these commits to somebody else. (See the 174 "RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE" section in linkgit:git-rebase[1] 175 for the implications of doing so.) 176 177Undo a merge or pull:: 178+ 179------------ 180$ git pull <1> 181Auto-merging nitfol 182CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in nitfol 183Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result. 184$ git reset --hard <2> 185$ git pull . topic/branch <3> 186Updating from 41223... to 13134... 187Fast-forward 188$ git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD <4> 189------------ 190+ 191<1> Try to update from the upstream resulted in a lot of 192 conflicts; you were not ready to spend a lot of time merging 193 right now, so you decide to do that later. 194<2> "pull" has not made merge commit, so `git reset --hard` 195 which is a synonym for `git reset --hard HEAD` clears the mess 196 from the index file and the working tree. 197<3> Merge a topic branch into the current branch, which resulted 198 in a fast-forward. 199<4> But you decided that the topic branch is not ready for public 200 consumption yet. "pull" or "merge" always leaves the original 201 tip of the current branch in `ORIG_HEAD`, so resetting hard to it 202 brings your index file and the working tree back to that state, 203 and resets the tip of the branch to that commit. 204 205Undo a merge or pull inside a dirty working tree:: 206+ 207------------ 208$ git pull <1> 209Auto-merging nitfol 210Merge made by recursive. 211 nitfol | 20 +++++---- 212 ... 213$ git reset --merge ORIG_HEAD <2> 214------------ 215+ 216<1> Even if you may have local modifications in your 217 working tree, you can safely say `git pull` when you know 218 that the change in the other branch does not overlap with 219 them. 220<2> After inspecting the result of the merge, you may find 221 that the change in the other branch is unsatisfactory. Running 222 `git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD` will let you go back to where you 223 were, but it will discard your local changes, which you do not 224 want. `git reset --merge` keeps your local changes. 225 226 227Interrupted workflow:: 228+ 229Suppose you are interrupted by an urgent fix request while you 230are in the middle of a large change. The files in your 231working tree are not in any shape to be committed yet, but you 232need to get to the other branch for a quick bugfix. 233+ 234------------ 235$ git checkout feature ;# you were working in "feature" branch and 236$ work work work ;# got interrupted 237$ git commit -a -m "snapshot WIP" <1> 238$ git checkout master 239$ fix fix fix 240$ git commit ;# commit with real log 241$ git checkout feature 242$ git reset --soft HEAD^ ;# go back to WIP state <2> 243$ git reset <3> 244------------ 245+ 246<1> This commit will get blown away so a throw-away log message is OK. 247<2> This removes the 'WIP' commit from the commit history, and sets 248 your working tree to the state just before you made that snapshot. 249<3> At this point the index file still has all the WIP changes you 250 committed as 'snapshot WIP'. This updates the index to show your 251 WIP files as uncommitted. 252+ 253See also linkgit:git-stash[1]. 254 255Reset a single file in the index:: 256+ 257Suppose you have added a file to your index, but later decide you do not 258want to add it to your commit. You can remove the file from the index 259while keeping your changes with git reset. 260+ 261------------ 262$ git reset -- frotz.c <1> 263$ git commit -m "Commit files in index" <2> 264$ git add frotz.c <3> 265------------ 266+ 267<1> This removes the file from the index while keeping it in the working 268 directory. 269<2> This commits all other changes in the index. 270<3> Adds the file to the index again. 271 272Keep changes in working tree while discarding some previous commits:: 273+ 274Suppose you are working on something and you commit it, and then you 275continue working a bit more, but now you think that what you have in 276your working tree should be in another branch that has nothing to do 277with what you committed previously. You can start a new branch and 278reset it while keeping the changes in your working tree. 279+ 280------------ 281$ git tag start 282$ git checkout -b branch1 283$ edit 284$ git commit ... <1> 285$ edit 286$ git checkout -b branch2 <2> 287$ git reset --keep start <3> 288------------ 289+ 290<1> This commits your first edits in `branch1`. 291<2> In the ideal world, you could have realized that the earlier 292 commit did not belong to the new topic when you created and switched 293 to `branch2` (i.e. `git checkout -b branch2 start`), but nobody is 294 perfect. 295<3> But you can use `reset --keep` to remove the unwanted commit after 296 you switched to `branch2`. 297 298Split a commit apart into a sequence of commits:: 299+ 300Suppose that you have created lots of logically separate changes and committed 301them together. Then, later you decide that it might be better to have each 302logical chunk associated with its own commit. You can use git reset to rewind 303history without changing the contents of your local files, and then successively 304use `git add -p` to interactively select which hunks to include into each commit, 305using `git commit -c` to pre-populate the commit message. 306+ 307------------ 308$ git reset -N HEAD^ <1> 309$ git add -p <2> 310$ git diff --cached <3> 311$ git commit -c HEAD@{1} <4> 312... <5> 313$ git add ... <6> 314$ git diff --cached <7> 315$ git commit ... <8> 316------------ 317+ 318<1> First, reset the history back one commit so that we remove the original 319 commit, but leave the working tree with all the changes. The -N ensures 320 that any new files added with `HEAD` are still marked so that `git add -p` 321 will find them. 322<2> Next, we interactively select diff hunks to add using the `git add -p` 323 facility. This will ask you about each diff hunk in sequence and you can 324 use simple commands such as "yes, include this", "No don't include this" 325 or even the very powerful "edit" facility. 326<3> Once satisfied with the hunks you want to include, you should verify what 327 has been prepared for the first commit by using `git diff --cached`. This 328 shows all the changes that have been moved into the index and are about 329 to be committed. 330<4> Next, commit the changes stored in the index. The `-c` option specifies to 331 pre-populate the commit message from the original message that you started 332 with in the first commit. This is helpful to avoid retyping it. The 333 `HEAD@{1}` is a special notation for the commit that `HEAD` used to be at 334 prior to the original reset commit (1 change ago). 335 See linkgit:git-reflog[1] for more details. You may also use any other 336 valid commit reference. 337<5> You can repeat steps 2-4 multiple times to break the original code into 338 any number of commits. 339<6> Now you've split out many of the changes into their own commits, and might 340 no longer use the patch mode of `git add`, in order to select all remaining 341 uncommitted changes. 342<7> Once again, check to verify that you've included what you want to. You may 343 also wish to verify that git diff doesn't show any remaining changes to be 344 committed later. 345<8> And finally create the final commit. 346 347 348DISCUSSION 349---------- 350 351The tables below show what happens when running: 352 353---------- 354git reset --option target 355---------- 356 357to reset the `HEAD` to another commit (`target`) with the different 358reset options depending on the state of the files. 359 360In these tables, `A`, `B`, `C` and `D` are some different states of a 361file. For example, the first line of the first table means that if a 362file is in state `A` in the working tree, in state `B` in the index, in 363state `C` in `HEAD` and in state `D` in the target, then `git reset --soft 364target` will leave the file in the working tree in state `A` and in the 365index in state `B`. It resets (i.e. moves) the `HEAD` (i.e. the tip of 366the current branch, if you are on one) to `target` (which has the file 367in state `D`). 368 369.... 370working index HEAD target working index HEAD 371---------------------------------------------------- 372 A B C D --soft A B D 373 --mixed A D D 374 --hard D D D 375 --merge (disallowed) 376 --keep (disallowed) 377.... 378 379.... 380working index HEAD target working index HEAD 381---------------------------------------------------- 382 A B C C --soft A B C 383 --mixed A C C 384 --hard C C C 385 --merge (disallowed) 386 --keep A C C 387.... 388 389.... 390working index HEAD target working index HEAD 391---------------------------------------------------- 392 B B C D --soft B B D 393 --mixed B D D 394 --hard D D D 395 --merge D D D 396 --keep (disallowed) 397.... 398 399.... 400working index HEAD target working index HEAD 401---------------------------------------------------- 402 B B C C --soft B B C 403 --mixed B C C 404 --hard C C C 405 --merge C C C 406 --keep B C C 407.... 408 409.... 410working index HEAD target working index HEAD 411---------------------------------------------------- 412 B C C D --soft B C D 413 --mixed B D D 414 --hard D D D 415 --merge (disallowed) 416 --keep (disallowed) 417.... 418 419.... 420working index HEAD target working index HEAD 421---------------------------------------------------- 422 B C C C --soft B C C 423 --mixed B C C 424 --hard C C C 425 --merge B C C 426 --keep B C C 427.... 428 429`reset --merge` is meant to be used when resetting out of a conflicted 430merge. Any mergy operation guarantees that the working tree file that is 431involved in the merge does not have local change wrt the index before 432it starts, and that it writes the result out to the working tree. So if 433we see some difference between the index and the target and also 434between the index and the working tree, then it means that we are not 435resetting out from a state that a mergy operation left after failing 436with a conflict. That is why we disallow `--merge` option in this case. 437 438`reset --keep` is meant to be used when removing some of the last 439commits in the current branch while keeping changes in the working 440tree. If there could be conflicts between the changes in the commit we 441want to remove and the changes in the working tree we want to keep, 442the reset is disallowed. That's why it is disallowed if there are both 443changes between the working tree and `HEAD`, and between `HEAD` and the 444target. To be safe, it is also disallowed when there are unmerged 445entries. 446 447The following tables show what happens when there are unmerged 448entries: 449 450.... 451working index HEAD target working index HEAD 452---------------------------------------------------- 453 X U A B --soft (disallowed) 454 --mixed X B B 455 --hard B B B 456 --merge B B B 457 --keep (disallowed) 458.... 459 460.... 461working index HEAD target working index HEAD 462---------------------------------------------------- 463 X U A A --soft (disallowed) 464 --mixed X A A 465 --hard A A A 466 --merge A A A 467 --keep (disallowed) 468.... 469 470`X` means any state and `U` means an unmerged index. 471 472GIT 473--- 474Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite