Documentation / git-reset.txton commit GIT 1.0.7 (92e802c)
   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<1> This is most often done when you remembered what you
  57just committed is incomplete, or you misspelled your commit
  58message, or both.  Leaves working tree as it was before "reset".
  59<2> make corrections to working tree files.
  60<3> "reset" copies the old head to .git/ORIG_HEAD; redo the
  61commit by starting with its log message.  If you do not need to
  62edit the message further, you can give -C option instead.
  63------------
  64
  65Undo commits permanently::
  66+
  67------------
  68$ git commit ...
  69$ git reset --hard HEAD~3 <1>
  70
  71<1> The last three commits (HEAD, HEAD^, and HEAD~2) were bad
  72and you do not want to ever see them again.  Do *not* do this if
  73you have already given these commits to somebody else.
  74------------
  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<1> You have made some commits, but realize they were premature
  84to be in the "master" branch.  You want to continue polishing
  85them in a topic branch, so create "topic/wip" branch off of the
  86current HEAD.
  87<2> Rewind the master branch to get rid of those three commits.
  88<3> Switch to "topic/wip" branch and keep working.
  89------------
  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<1> you are happily working on something, and find the changes
 101in these files are in good order.  You do not want to see them
 102when you run "git diff", because you plan to work on other files
 103and changes with these files are distracting.
 104<2> somebody asks you to pull, and the changes sounds worthy of merging.
 105<3> however, you already dirtied the index (i.e. your index does
 106not match the HEAD commit).  But you know the pull you are going
 107to make does not affect frotz.c nor filfre.c, so you revert the
 108index changes for these two files.  Your changes in working tree
 109remain there.
 110<4> then you can pull and merge, leaving frotz.c and filfre.c
 111changes still in the working tree.
 112------------
 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
 127<1> try to update from the upstream resulted in a lot of
 128conflicts; you were not ready to spend a lot of time merging
 129right now, so you decide to do that later.
 130<2> "pull" has not made merge commit, so "git reset --hard"
 131which is a synonym for "git reset --hard HEAD" clears the mess
 132from the index file and the working tree.
 133
 134$ git pull . topic/branch <3>
 135Updating from 41223... to 13134...
 136Fast forward
 137$ git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD <4>
 138
 139<3> merge a topic branch into the current branch, which resulted
 140in a fast forward.
 141<4> but you decided that the topic branch is not ready for public
 142consumption yet.  "pull" or "merge" always leaves the original
 143tip of the current branch in ORIG_HEAD, so resetting hard to it
 144brings your index file and the working tree back to that state,
 145and resets the tip of the branch to that commit.
 146------------
 147
 148Author
 149------
 150Written by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> and Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 151
 152Documentation
 153--------------
 154Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 155
 156GIT
 157---
 158Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
 159