1git-reset(1) 2============ 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-reset - Reset current HEAD to the specified state 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'git reset' [--mixed | --soft | --hard | --merge | --keep] [-q] [<commit>] 12'git reset' [-q] [<commit>] [--] <paths>... 13'git reset' --patch [<commit>] [--] [<paths>...] 14 15DESCRIPTION 16----------- 17Sets the current head to the specified commit and optionally resets the 18index and working tree to match. 19 20This command is useful if you notice some small error in a recent 21commit (or set of commits) and want to redo that part without showing 22the undo in the history. 23 24If you want to undo a commit other than the latest on a branch, 25linkgit:git-revert[1] is your friend. 26 27The second and third forms with 'paths' and/or --patch are used to 28revert selected paths in the index from a given commit, without moving 29HEAD. 30 31 32OPTIONS 33------- 34--mixed:: 35 Resets the index but not the working tree (i.e., the changed files 36 are preserved but not marked for commit) and reports what has not 37 been updated. This is the default action. 38 39--soft:: 40 Does not touch the index file nor the working tree at all, but 41 requires them to be in a good order. This leaves all your changed 42 files "Changes to be committed", as 'git status' would 43 put it. 44 45--hard:: 46 Matches the working tree and index to that of the tree being 47 switched to. Any changes to tracked files in the working tree 48 since <commit> are lost. 49 50--merge:: 51 Resets the index to match the tree recorded by the named commit, 52 and updates the files that are different between the named commit 53 and the current commit in the working tree. 54 55--keep:: 56 Reset the index to the given commit, keeping local changes in 57 the working tree since the current commit, while updating 58 working tree files without local changes to what appears in 59 the given commit. If a file that is different between the 60 current commit and the given commit has local changes, reset 61 is aborted. 62 63-p:: 64--patch:: 65 Interactively select hunks in the difference between the index 66 and <commit> (defaults to HEAD). The chosen hunks are applied 67 in reverse to the index. 68+ 69This means that `git reset -p` is the opposite of `git add -p` (see 70linkgit:git-add[1]). 71 72-q:: 73--quiet:: 74 Be quiet, only report errors. 75 76<commit>:: 77 Commit to make the current HEAD. If not given defaults to HEAD. 78 79DISCUSSION 80---------- 81 82The tables below show what happens when running: 83 84---------- 85git reset --option target 86---------- 87 88to reset the HEAD to another commit (`target`) with the different 89reset options depending on the state of the files. 90 91In these tables, A, B, C and D are some different states of a 92file. For example, the first line of the first table means that if a 93file is in state A in the working tree, in state B in the index, in 94state C in HEAD and in state D in the target, then "git reset --soft 95target" will put the file in state A in the working tree, in state B 96in the index and in state D in HEAD. 97 98 working index HEAD target working index HEAD 99 ---------------------------------------------------- 100 A B C D --soft A B D 101 --mixed A D D 102 --hard D D D 103 --merge (disallowed) 104 --keep (disallowed) 105 106 working index HEAD target working index HEAD 107 ---------------------------------------------------- 108 A B C C --soft A B C 109 --mixed A C C 110 --hard C C C 111 --merge (disallowed) 112 --keep A C C 113 114 working index HEAD target working index HEAD 115 ---------------------------------------------------- 116 B B C D --soft B B D 117 --mixed B D D 118 --hard D D D 119 --merge D D D 120 --keep (disallowed) 121 122 working index HEAD target working index HEAD 123 ---------------------------------------------------- 124 B B C C --soft B B C 125 --mixed B C C 126 --hard C C C 127 --merge C C C 128 --keep B C C 129 130 working index HEAD target working index HEAD 131 ---------------------------------------------------- 132 B C C D --soft B C D 133 --mixed B D D 134 --hard D D D 135 --merge (disallowed) 136 --keep (disallowed) 137 138 working index HEAD target working index HEAD 139 ---------------------------------------------------- 140 B C C C --soft B C C 141 --mixed B C C 142 --hard C C C 143 --merge B C C 144 --keep B C C 145 146"reset --merge" is meant to be used when resetting out of a conflicted 147merge. Any mergy operation guarantees that the work tree file that is 148involved in the merge does not have local change wrt the index before 149it starts, and that it writes the result out to the work tree. So if 150we see some difference between the index and the target and also 151between the index and the work tree, then it means that we are not 152resetting out from a state that a mergy operation left after failing 153with a conflict. That is why we disallow --merge option in this case. 154 155"reset --keep" is meant to be used when removing some of the last 156commits in the current branch while keeping changes in the working 157tree. If there could be conflicts between the changes in the commit we 158want to remove and the changes in the working tree we want to keep, 159the reset is disallowed. That's why it is disallowed if there are both 160changes between the working tree and HEAD, and between HEAD and the 161target. To be safe, it is also disallowed when there are unmerged 162entries. 163 164The following tables show what happens when there are unmerged 165entries: 166 167 working index HEAD target working index HEAD 168 ---------------------------------------------------- 169 X U A B --soft (disallowed) 170 --mixed X B B 171 --hard B B B 172 --merge B B B 173 --keep (disallowed) 174 175 working index HEAD target working index HEAD 176 ---------------------------------------------------- 177 X U A A --soft (disallowed) 178 --mixed X A A 179 --hard A A A 180 --merge A A A 181 --keep (disallowed) 182 183X means any state and U means an unmerged index. 184 185Examples 186-------- 187 188Undo a commit and redo:: 189+ 190------------ 191$ git commit ... 192$ git reset --soft HEAD^ <1> 193$ edit <2> 194$ git commit -a -c ORIG_HEAD <3> 195------------ 196+ 197<1> This is most often done when you remembered what you 198just committed is incomplete, or you misspelled your commit 199message, or both. Leaves working tree as it was before "reset". 200<2> Make corrections to working tree files. 201<3> "reset" copies the old head to .git/ORIG_HEAD; redo the 202commit by starting with its log message. If you do not need to 203edit the message further, you can give -C option instead. 204+ 205See also the --amend option to linkgit:git-commit[1]. 206 207Undo commits permanently:: 208+ 209------------ 210$ git commit ... 211$ git reset --hard HEAD~3 <1> 212------------ 213+ 214<1> The last three commits (HEAD, HEAD^, and HEAD~2) were bad 215and you do not want to ever see them again. Do *not* do this if 216you have already given these commits to somebody else. (See the 217"RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE" section in linkgit:git-rebase[1] for 218the implications of doing so.) 219 220Undo a commit, making it a topic branch:: 221+ 222------------ 223$ git branch topic/wip <1> 224$ git reset --hard HEAD~3 <2> 225$ git checkout topic/wip <3> 226------------ 227+ 228<1> You have made some commits, but realize they were premature 229to be in the "master" branch. You want to continue polishing 230them in a topic branch, so create "topic/wip" branch off of the 231current HEAD. 232<2> Rewind the master branch to get rid of those three commits. 233<3> Switch to "topic/wip" branch and keep working. 234 235Undo add:: 236+ 237------------ 238$ edit <1> 239$ git add frotz.c filfre.c 240$ mailx <2> 241$ git reset <3> 242$ git pull git://info.example.com/ nitfol <4> 243------------ 244+ 245<1> You are happily working on something, and find the changes 246in these files are in good order. You do not want to see them 247when you run "git diff", because you plan to work on other files 248and changes with these files are distracting. 249<2> Somebody asks you to pull, and the changes sounds worthy of merging. 250<3> However, you already dirtied the index (i.e. your index does 251not match the HEAD commit). But you know the pull you are going 252to make does not affect frotz.c nor filfre.c, so you revert the 253index changes for these two files. Your changes in working tree 254remain there. 255<4> Then you can pull and merge, leaving frotz.c and filfre.c 256changes still in the working tree. 257 258Undo a merge or pull:: 259+ 260------------ 261$ git pull <1> 262Auto-merging nitfol 263CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in nitfol 264Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result. 265$ git reset --hard <2> 266$ git pull . topic/branch <3> 267Updating from 41223... to 13134... 268Fast-forward 269$ git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD <4> 270------------ 271+ 272<1> Try to update from the upstream resulted in a lot of 273conflicts; you were not ready to spend a lot of time merging 274right now, so you decide to do that later. 275<2> "pull" has not made merge commit, so "git reset --hard" 276which is a synonym for "git reset --hard HEAD" clears the mess 277from the index file and the working tree. 278<3> Merge a topic branch into the current branch, which resulted 279in a fast-forward. 280<4> But you decided that the topic branch is not ready for public 281consumption yet. "pull" or "merge" always leaves the original 282tip of the current branch in ORIG_HEAD, so resetting hard to it 283brings your index file and the working tree back to that state, 284and resets the tip of the branch to that commit. 285 286Undo a merge or pull inside a dirty work tree:: 287+ 288------------ 289$ git pull <1> 290Auto-merging nitfol 291Merge made by recursive. 292 nitfol | 20 +++++---- 293 ... 294$ git reset --merge ORIG_HEAD <2> 295------------ 296+ 297<1> Even if you may have local modifications in your 298working tree, you can safely say "git pull" when you know 299that the change in the other branch does not overlap with 300them. 301<2> After inspecting the result of the merge, you may find 302that the change in the other branch is unsatisfactory. Running 303"git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD" will let you go back to where you 304were, but it will discard your local changes, which you do not 305want. "git reset --merge" keeps your local changes. 306 307 308Interrupted workflow:: 309+ 310Suppose you are interrupted by an urgent fix request while you 311are in the middle of a large change. The files in your 312working tree are not in any shape to be committed yet, but you 313need to get to the other branch for a quick bugfix. 314+ 315------------ 316$ git checkout feature ;# you were working in "feature" branch and 317$ work work work ;# got interrupted 318$ git commit -a -m "snapshot WIP" <1> 319$ git checkout master 320$ fix fix fix 321$ git commit ;# commit with real log 322$ git checkout feature 323$ git reset --soft HEAD^ ;# go back to WIP state <2> 324$ git reset <3> 325------------ 326+ 327<1> This commit will get blown away so a throw-away log message is OK. 328<2> This removes the 'WIP' commit from the commit history, and sets 329 your working tree to the state just before you made that snapshot. 330<3> At this point the index file still has all the WIP changes you 331 committed as 'snapshot WIP'. This updates the index to show your 332 WIP files as uncommitted. 333+ 334See also linkgit:git-stash[1]. 335 336Reset a single file in the index:: 337+ 338Suppose you have added a file to your index, but later decide you do not 339want to add it to your commit. You can remove the file from the index 340while keeping your changes with git reset. 341+ 342------------ 343$ git reset -- frotz.c <1> 344$ git commit -m "Commit files in index" <2> 345$ git add frotz.c <3> 346------------ 347+ 348<1> This removes the file from the index while keeping it in the working 349 directory. 350<2> This commits all other changes in the index. 351<3> Adds the file to the index again. 352 353Keep changes in working tree while discarding some previous commits:: 354+ 355Suppose you are working on something and you commit it, and then you 356continue working a bit more, but now you think that what you have in 357your working tree should be in another branch that has nothing to do 358with what you commited previously. You can start a new branch and 359reset it while keeping the changes in your work tree. 360+ 361------------ 362$ git tag start 363$ git checkout -b branch1 364$ edit 365$ git commit ... <1> 366$ edit 367$ git checkout -b branch2 <2> 368$ git reset --keep start <3> 369------------ 370+ 371<1> This commits your first edits in branch1. 372<2> In the ideal world, you could have realized that the earlier 373 commit did not belong to the new topic when you created and switched 374 to branch2 (i.e. "git checkout -b branch2 start"), but nobody is 375 perfect. 376<3> But you can use "reset --keep" to remove the unwanted commit after 377 you switched to "branch2". 378 379Author 380------ 381Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> and Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 382 383Documentation 384-------------- 385Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 386 387GIT 388--- 389Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite