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>, optionally 19modifying index and working tree to match. The <tree-ish>/<commit> defaults 20to 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 unstaged 77 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 changes, 86 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 Be quiet, only report errors. 99 100 101EXAMPLES 102-------- 103 104Undo add:: 105+ 106------------ 107$ edit <1> 108$ git add frotz.c filfre.c 109$ mailx <2> 110$ git reset <3> 111$ git pull git://info.example.com/ nitfol <4> 112------------ 113+ 114<1> You are happily working on something, and find the changes 115in these files are in good order. You do not want to see them 116when you run "git diff", because you plan to work on other files 117and changes with these files are distracting. 118<2> Somebody asks you to pull, and the changes sounds worthy of merging. 119<3> However, you already dirtied the index (i.e. your index does 120not match the HEAD commit). But you know the pull you are going 121to make does not affect frotz.c or filfre.c, so you revert the 122index changes for these two files. Your changes in working tree 123remain there. 124<4> Then you can pull and merge, leaving frotz.c and filfre.c 125changes still in the working tree. 126 127Undo a commit and redo:: 128+ 129------------ 130$ git commit ... 131$ git reset --soft HEAD^ <1> 132$ edit <2> 133$ git commit -a -c ORIG_HEAD <3> 134------------ 135+ 136<1> This is most often done when you remembered what you 137just committed is incomplete, or you misspelled your commit 138message, or both. Leaves working tree as it was before "reset". 139<2> Make corrections to working tree files. 140<3> "reset" copies the old head to .git/ORIG_HEAD; redo the 141commit by starting with its log message. If you do not need to 142edit the message further, you can give -C option instead. 143+ 144See also the --amend option to linkgit:git-commit[1]. 145 146Undo a commit, making it a topic branch:: 147+ 148------------ 149$ git branch topic/wip <1> 150$ git reset --hard HEAD~3 <2> 151$ git checkout topic/wip <3> 152------------ 153+ 154<1> You have made some commits, but realize they were premature 155to be in the "master" branch. You want to continue polishing 156them in a topic branch, so create "topic/wip" branch off of the 157current HEAD. 158<2> Rewind the master branch to get rid of those three commits. 159<3> Switch to "topic/wip" branch and keep working. 160 161Undo commits permanently:: 162+ 163------------ 164$ git commit ... 165$ git reset --hard HEAD~3 <1> 166------------ 167+ 168<1> The last three commits (HEAD, HEAD^, and HEAD~2) were bad 169and you do not want to ever see them again. Do *not* do this if 170you have already given these commits to somebody else. (See the 171"RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE" section in linkgit:git-rebase[1] for 172the implications of doing so.) 173 174Undo a merge or pull:: 175+ 176------------ 177$ git pull <1> 178Auto-merging nitfol 179CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in nitfol 180Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result. 181$ git reset --hard <2> 182$ git pull . topic/branch <3> 183Updating from 41223... to 13134... 184Fast-forward 185$ git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD <4> 186------------ 187+ 188<1> Try to update from the upstream resulted in a lot of 189conflicts; you were not ready to spend a lot of time merging 190right now, so you decide to do that later. 191<2> "pull" has not made merge commit, so "git reset --hard" 192which is a synonym for "git reset --hard HEAD" clears the mess 193from the index file and the working tree. 194<3> Merge a topic branch into the current branch, which resulted 195in a fast-forward. 196<4> But you decided that the topic branch is not ready for public 197consumption yet. "pull" or "merge" always leaves the original 198tip of the current branch in ORIG_HEAD, so resetting hard to it 199brings your index file and the working tree back to that state, 200and resets the tip of the branch to that commit. 201 202Undo a merge or pull inside a dirty working tree:: 203+ 204------------ 205$ git pull <1> 206Auto-merging nitfol 207Merge made by recursive. 208 nitfol | 20 +++++---- 209 ... 210$ git reset --merge ORIG_HEAD <2> 211------------ 212+ 213<1> Even if you may have local modifications in your 214working tree, you can safely say "git pull" when you know 215that the change in the other branch does not overlap with 216them. 217<2> After inspecting the result of the merge, you may find 218that the change in the other branch is unsatisfactory. Running 219"git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD" will let you go back to where you 220were, but it will discard your local changes, which you do not 221want. "git reset --merge" keeps your local changes. 222 223 224Interrupted workflow:: 225+ 226Suppose you are interrupted by an urgent fix request while you 227are in the middle of a large change. The files in your 228working tree are not in any shape to be committed yet, but you 229need to get to the other branch for a quick bugfix. 230+ 231------------ 232$ git checkout feature ;# you were working in "feature" branch and 233$ work work work ;# got interrupted 234$ git commit -a -m "snapshot WIP" <1> 235$ git checkout master 236$ fix fix fix 237$ git commit ;# commit with real log 238$ git checkout feature 239$ git reset --soft HEAD^ ;# go back to WIP state <2> 240$ git reset <3> 241------------ 242+ 243<1> This commit will get blown away so a throw-away log message is OK. 244<2> This removes the 'WIP' commit from the commit history, and sets 245 your working tree to the state just before you made that snapshot. 246<3> At this point the index file still has all the WIP changes you 247 committed as 'snapshot WIP'. This updates the index to show your 248 WIP files as uncommitted. 249+ 250See also linkgit:git-stash[1]. 251 252Reset a single file in the index:: 253+ 254Suppose you have added a file to your index, but later decide you do not 255want to add it to your commit. You can remove the file from the index 256while keeping your changes with git reset. 257+ 258------------ 259$ git reset -- frotz.c <1> 260$ git commit -m "Commit files in index" <2> 261$ git add frotz.c <3> 262------------ 263+ 264<1> This removes the file from the index while keeping it in the working 265 directory. 266<2> This commits all other changes in the index. 267<3> Adds the file to the index again. 268 269Keep changes in working tree while discarding some previous commits:: 270+ 271Suppose you are working on something and you commit it, and then you 272continue working a bit more, but now you think that what you have in 273your working tree should be in another branch that has nothing to do 274with what you committed previously. You can start a new branch and 275reset it while keeping the changes in your working tree. 276+ 277------------ 278$ git tag start 279$ git checkout -b branch1 280$ edit 281$ git commit ... <1> 282$ edit 283$ git checkout -b branch2 <2> 284$ git reset --keep start <3> 285------------ 286+ 287<1> This commits your first edits in branch1. 288<2> In the ideal world, you could have realized that the earlier 289 commit did not belong to the new topic when you created and switched 290 to branch2 (i.e. "git checkout -b branch2 start"), but nobody is 291 perfect. 292<3> But you can use "reset --keep" to remove the unwanted commit after 293 you switched to "branch2". 294 295 296DISCUSSION 297---------- 298 299The tables below show what happens when running: 300 301---------- 302git reset --option target 303---------- 304 305to reset the HEAD to another commit (`target`) with the different 306reset options depending on the state of the files. 307 308In these tables, A, B, C and D are some different states of a 309file. For example, the first line of the first table means that if a 310file is in state A in the working tree, in state B in the index, in 311state C in HEAD and in state D in the target, then "git reset --soft 312target" will leave the file in the working tree in state A and in the 313index in state B. It resets (i.e. moves) the HEAD (i.e. the tip of 314the current branch, if you are on one) to "target" (which has the file 315in state D). 316 317 working index HEAD target working index HEAD 318 ---------------------------------------------------- 319 A B C D --soft A B D 320 --mixed A D D 321 --hard D D D 322 --merge (disallowed) 323 --keep (disallowed) 324 325 working index HEAD target working index HEAD 326 ---------------------------------------------------- 327 A B C C --soft A B C 328 --mixed A C C 329 --hard C C C 330 --merge (disallowed) 331 --keep A C C 332 333 working index HEAD target working index HEAD 334 ---------------------------------------------------- 335 B B C D --soft B B D 336 --mixed B D D 337 --hard D D D 338 --merge D D D 339 --keep (disallowed) 340 341 working index HEAD target working index HEAD 342 ---------------------------------------------------- 343 B B C C --soft B B C 344 --mixed B C C 345 --hard C C C 346 --merge C C C 347 --keep B C C 348 349 working index HEAD target working index HEAD 350 ---------------------------------------------------- 351 B C C D --soft B C D 352 --mixed B D D 353 --hard D D D 354 --merge (disallowed) 355 --keep (disallowed) 356 357 working index HEAD target working index HEAD 358 ---------------------------------------------------- 359 B C C C --soft B C C 360 --mixed B C C 361 --hard C C C 362 --merge B C C 363 --keep B C C 364 365"reset --merge" is meant to be used when resetting out of a conflicted 366merge. Any mergy operation guarantees that the working tree file that is 367involved in the merge does not have local change wrt the index before 368it starts, and that it writes the result out to the working tree. So if 369we see some difference between the index and the target and also 370between the index and the working tree, then it means that we are not 371resetting out from a state that a mergy operation left after failing 372with a conflict. That is why we disallow --merge option in this case. 373 374"reset --keep" is meant to be used when removing some of the last 375commits in the current branch while keeping changes in the working 376tree. If there could be conflicts between the changes in the commit we 377want to remove and the changes in the working tree we want to keep, 378the reset is disallowed. That's why it is disallowed if there are both 379changes between the working tree and HEAD, and between HEAD and the 380target. To be safe, it is also disallowed when there are unmerged 381entries. 382 383The following tables show what happens when there are unmerged 384entries: 385 386 working index HEAD target working index HEAD 387 ---------------------------------------------------- 388 X U A B --soft (disallowed) 389 --mixed X B B 390 --hard B B B 391 --merge B B B 392 --keep (disallowed) 393 394 working index HEAD target working index HEAD 395 ---------------------------------------------------- 396 X U A A --soft (disallowed) 397 --mixed X A A 398 --hard A A A 399 --merge A A A 400 --keep (disallowed) 401 402X means any state and U means an unmerged index. 403 404GIT 405--- 406Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite