Documentation / git-reset.txton commit Move pack_refs() and friends into libgit (94e724a)
   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] [-q] [<commit>]
  12'git reset' [-q] [<commit>] [--] <paths>...
  13
  14DESCRIPTION
  15-----------
  16Sets the current head to the specified commit and optionally resets the
  17index and working tree to match.
  18
  19This command is useful if you notice some small error in a recent
  20commit (or set of commits) and want to redo that part without showing
  21the undo in the history.
  22
  23If you want to undo a commit other than the latest on a branch,
  24linkgit:git-revert[1] is your friend.
  25
  26The second form with 'paths' is used to revert selected paths in
  27the index from a given commit, without moving HEAD.
  28
  29
  30OPTIONS
  31-------
  32--mixed::
  33        Resets the index but not the working tree (i.e., the changed files
  34        are preserved but not marked for commit) and reports what has not
  35        been updated. This is the default action.
  36
  37--soft::
  38        Does not touch the index file nor the working tree at all, but
  39        requires them to be in a good order. This leaves all your changed
  40        files "Changes to be committed", as linkgit:git-status[1] would
  41        put it.
  42
  43--hard::
  44        Matches the working tree and index to that of the tree being
  45        switched to. Any changes to tracked files in the working tree
  46        since <commit> are lost.
  47
  48-q::
  49        Be quiet, only report errors.
  50
  51<commit>::
  52        Commit to make the current HEAD. If not given defaults to HEAD.
  53
  54Examples
  55--------
  56
  57Undo a commit and redo::
  58+
  59------------
  60$ git commit ...
  61$ git reset --soft HEAD^      <1>
  62$ edit                        <2>
  63$ git commit -a -c ORIG_HEAD  <3>
  64------------
  65+
  66<1> This is most often done when you remembered what you
  67just committed is incomplete, or you misspelled your commit
  68message, or both.  Leaves working tree as it was before "reset".
  69<2> Make corrections to working tree files.
  70<3> "reset" copies the old head to .git/ORIG_HEAD; redo the
  71commit by starting with its log message.  If you do not need to
  72edit the message further, you can give -C option instead.
  73+
  74See also the --amend option to linkgit:git-commit[1].
  75
  76Undo commits permanently::
  77+
  78------------
  79$ git commit ...
  80$ git reset --hard HEAD~3   <1>
  81------------
  82+
  83<1> The last three commits (HEAD, HEAD^, and HEAD~2) were bad
  84and you do not want to ever see them again.  Do *not* do this if
  85you have already given these commits to somebody else.
  86
  87Undo a commit, making it a topic branch::
  88+
  89------------
  90$ git branch topic/wip     <1>
  91$ git reset --hard HEAD~3  <2>
  92$ git checkout topic/wip   <3>
  93------------
  94+
  95<1> You have made some commits, but realize they were premature
  96to be in the "master" branch.  You want to continue polishing
  97them in a topic branch, so create "topic/wip" branch off of the
  98current HEAD.
  99<2> Rewind the master branch to get rid of those three commits.
 100<3> Switch to "topic/wip" branch and keep working.
 101
 102Undo add::
 103+
 104------------
 105$ edit                                     <1>
 106$ git add frotz.c filfre.c
 107$ mailx                                    <2>
 108$ git reset                                <3>
 109$ git pull git://info.example.com/ nitfol  <4>
 110------------
 111+
 112<1> You are happily working on something, and find the changes
 113in these files are in good order.  You do not want to see them
 114when you run "git diff", because you plan to work on other files
 115and changes with these files are distracting.
 116<2> Somebody asks you to pull, and the changes sounds worthy of merging.
 117<3> However, you already dirtied the index (i.e. your index does
 118not match the HEAD commit).  But you know the pull you are going
 119to make does not affect frotz.c nor filfre.c, so you revert the
 120index changes for these two files.  Your changes in working tree
 121remain there.
 122<4> Then you can pull and merge, leaving frotz.c and filfre.c
 123changes still in the working tree.
 124
 125Undo a merge or pull::
 126+
 127------------
 128$ git pull                         <1>
 129Auto-merging nitfol
 130CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in nitfol
 131Automatic merge failed/prevented; fix up by hand
 132$ git reset --hard                 <2>
 133$ git pull . topic/branch          <3>
 134Updating from 41223... to 13134...
 135Fast forward
 136$ git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD       <4>
 137------------
 138+
 139<1> Try to update from the upstream resulted in a lot of
 140conflicts; you were not ready to spend a lot of time merging
 141right now, so you decide to do that later.
 142<2> "pull" has not made merge commit, so "git reset --hard"
 143which is a synonym for "git reset --hard HEAD" clears the mess
 144from the index file and the working tree.
 145<3> Merge a topic branch into the current branch, which resulted
 146in a fast forward.
 147<4> But you decided that the topic branch is not ready for public
 148consumption yet.  "pull" or "merge" always leaves the original
 149tip of the current branch in ORIG_HEAD, so resetting hard to it
 150brings your index file and the working tree back to that state,
 151and resets the tip of the branch to that commit.
 152
 153Interrupted workflow::
 154+
 155Suppose you are interrupted by an urgent fix request while you
 156are in the middle of a large change.  The files in your
 157working tree are not in any shape to be committed yet, but you
 158need to get to the other branch for a quick bugfix.
 159+
 160------------
 161$ git checkout feature ;# you were working in "feature" branch and
 162$ work work work       ;# got interrupted
 163$ git commit -a -m "snapshot WIP"                 <1>
 164$ git checkout master
 165$ fix fix fix
 166$ git commit ;# commit with real log
 167$ git checkout feature
 168$ git reset --soft HEAD^ ;# go back to WIP state  <2>
 169$ git reset                                       <3>
 170------------
 171+
 172<1> This commit will get blown away so a throw-away log message is OK.
 173<2> This removes the 'WIP' commit from the commit history, and sets
 174    your working tree to the state just before you made that snapshot.
 175<3> At this point the index file still has all the WIP changes you
 176    committed as 'snapshot WIP'.  This updates the index to show your
 177    WIP files as uncommitted.
 178
 179Reset a single file in the index::
 180+
 181Suppose you have added a file to your index, but later decide you do not
 182want to add it to your commit. You can remove the file from the index
 183while keeping your changes with git reset.
 184+
 185------------
 186$ git reset -- frotz.c                      <1>
 187$ git commit -m "Commit files in index"     <2>
 188$ git add frotz.c                           <3>
 189------------
 190+
 191<1> This removes the file from the index while keeping it in the working
 192    directory.
 193<2> This commits all other changes in the index.
 194<3> Adds the file to the index again.
 195
 196Author
 197------
 198Written by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> and Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 199
 200Documentation
 201--------------
 202Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 203
 204GIT
 205---
 206Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite