Documentation / git-reset.txton commit Merge branch 'ff/svnimport' into next (100c25f)
   1git-reset(1)
   2============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-reset - Reset current HEAD to the specified state
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10'git-reset' [--mixed | --soft | --hard] [<commit-ish>]
  11
  12DESCRIPTION
  13-----------
  14Sets the current head to the specified commit and optionally resets the
  15index and working tree to match.
  16
  17This command is useful if you notice some small error in a recent
  18commit (or set of commits) and want to redo that part without showing
  19the undo in the history.
  20
  21If you want to undo a commit other than the latest on a branch,
  22gitlink:git-revert[1] is your friend.
  23
  24OPTIONS
  25-------
  26--mixed::
  27        Resets the index but not the working tree (ie, the changed files
  28        are preserved but not marked for commit) and reports what has not
  29        been updated. This is the default action.
  30
  31--soft::
  32        Does not touch the index file nor the working tree at all, but
  33        requires them to be in a good order. This leaves all your changed
  34        files "Updated but not checked in", as gitlink:git-status[1] would
  35        put it.
  36
  37--hard::
  38        Matches the working tree and index to that of the tree being
  39        switched to. Any changes to tracked files in the working tree
  40        since <commit-ish> are lost.
  41
  42<commit-ish>::
  43        Commit to make the current HEAD.
  44
  45Examples
  46--------
  47
  48Undo a commit and redo::
  49+
  50------------
  51$ git commit ...
  52$ git reset --soft HEAD^      <1>
  53$ edit                        <2>
  54$ git commit -a -c ORIG_HEAD  <3>
  55------------
  56+
  57<1> This is most often done when you remembered what you
  58just committed is incomplete, or you misspelled your commit
  59message, or both.  Leaves working tree as it was before "reset".
  60<2> make corrections to working tree files.
  61<3> "reset" copies the old head to .git/ORIG_HEAD; redo the
  62commit by starting with its log message.  If you do not need to
  63edit the message further, you can give -C option instead.
  64
  65Undo commits permanently::
  66+
  67------------
  68$ git commit ...
  69$ git reset --hard HEAD~3   <1>
  70------------
  71+
  72<1> The last three commits (HEAD, HEAD^, and HEAD~2) were bad
  73and you do not want to ever see them again.  Do *not* do this if
  74you have already given these commits to somebody else.
  75
  76Undo a commit, making it a topic branch::
  77+
  78------------
  79$ git branch topic/wip     <1>
  80$ git reset --hard HEAD~3  <2>
  81$ git checkout topic/wip   <3>
  82------------
  83+
  84<1> You have made some commits, but realize they were premature
  85to be in the "master" branch.  You want to continue polishing
  86them in a topic branch, so create "topic/wip" branch off of the
  87current HEAD.
  88<2> Rewind the master branch to get rid of those three commits.
  89<3> Switch to "topic/wip" branch and keep working.
  90
  91Undo update-index::
  92+
  93------------
  94$ edit                                     <1>
  95$ git-update-index frotz.c filfre.c
  96$ mailx                                    <2>
  97$ git reset                                <3>
  98$ git pull git://info.example.com/ nitfol  <4>
  99------------
 100+
 101<1> you are happily working on something, and find the changes
 102in these files are in good order.  You do not want to see them
 103when you run "git diff", because you plan to work on other files
 104and changes with these files are distracting.
 105<2> somebody asks you to pull, and the changes sounds worthy of merging.
 106<3> however, you already dirtied the index (i.e. your index does
 107not match the HEAD commit).  But you know the pull you are going
 108to make does not affect frotz.c nor filfre.c, so you revert the
 109index changes for these two files.  Your changes in working tree
 110remain there.
 111<4> then you can pull and merge, leaving frotz.c and filfre.c
 112changes still in the working tree.
 113
 114Undo a merge or pull::
 115+
 116------------
 117$ git pull                         <1>
 118Trying really trivial in-index merge...
 119fatal: Merge requires file-level merging
 120Nope.
 121...
 122Auto-merging nitfol
 123CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in nitfol
 124Automatic merge failed/prevented; fix up by hand
 125$ git reset --hard                 <2>
 126$ git pull . topic/branch          <3>
 127Updating from 41223... to 13134...
 128Fast forward
 129$ git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD       <4>
 130------------
 131+
 132<1> try to update from the upstream resulted in a lot of
 133conflicts; you were not ready to spend a lot of time merging
 134right now, so you decide to do that later.
 135<2> "pull" has not made merge commit, so "git reset --hard"
 136which is a synonym for "git reset --hard HEAD" clears the mess
 137from the index file and the working tree.
 138<3> merge a topic branch into the current branch, which resulted
 139in a fast forward.
 140<4> but you decided that the topic branch is not ready for public
 141consumption yet.  "pull" or "merge" always leaves the original
 142tip of the current branch in ORIG_HEAD, so resetting hard to it
 143brings your index file and the working tree back to that state,
 144and resets the tip of the branch to that commit.
 145
 146Interrupted workflow::
 147+
 148Suppose you are interrupted by an urgent fix request while you
 149are in the middle of a large change.  The files in your
 150working tree are not in any shape to be committed yet, but you
 151need to get to the other branch for a quick bugfix.
 152+
 153------------
 154$ git checkout feature ;# you were working in "feature" branch and
 155$ work work work       ;# got interrupted
 156$ git commit -a -m 'snapshot WIP'                 <1>
 157$ git checkout master
 158$ fix fix fix
 159$ git commit ;# commit with real log
 160$ git checkout feature
 161$ git reset --soft HEAD^ ;# go back to WIP state  <2>
 162$ git reset                                       <3>
 163------------
 164+
 165<1> This commit will get blown away so a throw-away log message is OK.
 166<2> This removes the 'WIP' commit from the commit history, and sets
 167    your working tree to the state just before you made that snapshot.
 168<3> At this point the index file still has all the WIP changes you
 169    committed as 'snapshot WIP'.  This updates the index to show your
 170    WIP files as uncommitted.
 171
 172Author
 173------
 174Written by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> and Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 175
 176Documentation
 177--------------
 178Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 179
 180GIT
 181---
 182Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite