Documentation / git-reset.txton commit Merge branch 'maint-1.6.1' into maint-1.6.2 (c503467)
   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] [-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 'git-status' 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--merge::
  49        Resets the index to match the tree recorded by the named commit,
  50        and updates the files that are different between the named commit
  51        and the current commit in the working tree.
  52
  53-q::
  54        Be quiet, only report errors.
  55
  56<commit>::
  57        Commit to make the current HEAD. If not given defaults to HEAD.
  58
  59Examples
  60--------
  61
  62Undo a commit and redo::
  63+
  64------------
  65$ git commit ...
  66$ git reset --soft HEAD^      <1>
  67$ edit                        <2>
  68$ git commit -a -c ORIG_HEAD  <3>
  69------------
  70+
  71<1> This is most often done when you remembered what you
  72just committed is incomplete, or you misspelled your commit
  73message, or both.  Leaves working tree as it was before "reset".
  74<2> Make corrections to working tree files.
  75<3> "reset" copies the old head to .git/ORIG_HEAD; redo the
  76commit by starting with its log message.  If you do not need to
  77edit the message further, you can give -C option instead.
  78+
  79See also the --amend option to linkgit:git-commit[1].
  80
  81Undo commits permanently::
  82+
  83------------
  84$ git commit ...
  85$ git reset --hard HEAD~3   <1>
  86------------
  87+
  88<1> The last three commits (HEAD, HEAD^, and HEAD~2) were bad
  89and you do not want to ever see them again.  Do *not* do this if
  90you have already given these commits to somebody else.  (See the
  91"RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE" section in linkgit:git-rebase[1] for
  92the implications of doing so.)
  93
  94Undo a commit, making it a topic branch::
  95+
  96------------
  97$ git branch topic/wip     <1>
  98$ git reset --hard HEAD~3  <2>
  99$ git checkout topic/wip   <3>
 100------------
 101+
 102<1> You have made some commits, but realize they were premature
 103to be in the "master" branch.  You want to continue polishing
 104them in a topic branch, so create "topic/wip" branch off of the
 105current HEAD.
 106<2> Rewind the master branch to get rid of those three commits.
 107<3> Switch to "topic/wip" branch and keep working.
 108
 109Undo add::
 110+
 111------------
 112$ edit                                     <1>
 113$ git add frotz.c filfre.c
 114$ mailx                                    <2>
 115$ git reset                                <3>
 116$ git pull git://info.example.com/ nitfol  <4>
 117------------
 118+
 119<1> You are happily working on something, and find the changes
 120in these files are in good order.  You do not want to see them
 121when you run "git diff", because you plan to work on other files
 122and changes with these files are distracting.
 123<2> Somebody asks you to pull, and the changes sounds worthy of merging.
 124<3> However, you already dirtied the index (i.e. your index does
 125not match the HEAD commit).  But you know the pull you are going
 126to make does not affect frotz.c nor filfre.c, so you revert the
 127index changes for these two files.  Your changes in working tree
 128remain there.
 129<4> Then you can pull and merge, leaving frotz.c and filfre.c
 130changes still in the working tree.
 131
 132Undo a merge or pull::
 133+
 134------------
 135$ git pull                         <1>
 136Auto-merging nitfol
 137CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in nitfol
 138Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.
 139$ git reset --hard                 <2>
 140$ git pull . topic/branch          <3>
 141Updating from 41223... to 13134...
 142Fast forward
 143$ git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD       <4>
 144------------
 145+
 146<1> Try to update from the upstream resulted in a lot of
 147conflicts; you were not ready to spend a lot of time merging
 148right now, so you decide to do that later.
 149<2> "pull" has not made merge commit, so "git reset --hard"
 150which is a synonym for "git reset --hard HEAD" clears the mess
 151from the index file and the working tree.
 152<3> Merge a topic branch into the current branch, which resulted
 153in a fast forward.
 154<4> But you decided that the topic branch is not ready for public
 155consumption yet.  "pull" or "merge" always leaves the original
 156tip of the current branch in ORIG_HEAD, so resetting hard to it
 157brings your index file and the working tree back to that state,
 158and resets the tip of the branch to that commit.
 159
 160Undo a merge or pull inside a dirty work tree::
 161+
 162------------
 163$ git pull                         <1>
 164Auto-merging nitfol
 165Merge made by recursive.
 166 nitfol                |   20 +++++----
 167 ...
 168$ git reset --merge ORIG_HEAD      <2>
 169------------
 170+
 171<1> Even if you may have local modifications in your
 172working tree, you can safely say "git pull" when you know
 173that the change in the other branch does not overlap with
 174them.
 175<2> After inspecting the result of the merge, you may find
 176that the change in the other branch is unsatisfactory.  Running
 177"git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD" will let you go back to where you
 178were, but it will discard your local changes, which you do not
 179want.  "git reset --merge" keeps your local changes.
 180
 181
 182Interrupted workflow::
 183+
 184Suppose you are interrupted by an urgent fix request while you
 185are in the middle of a large change.  The files in your
 186working tree are not in any shape to be committed yet, but you
 187need to get to the other branch for a quick bugfix.
 188+
 189------------
 190$ git checkout feature ;# you were working in "feature" branch and
 191$ work work work       ;# got interrupted
 192$ git commit -a -m "snapshot WIP"                 <1>
 193$ git checkout master
 194$ fix fix fix
 195$ git commit ;# commit with real log
 196$ git checkout feature
 197$ git reset --soft HEAD^ ;# go back to WIP state  <2>
 198$ git reset                                       <3>
 199------------
 200+
 201<1> This commit will get blown away so a throw-away log message is OK.
 202<2> This removes the 'WIP' commit from the commit history, and sets
 203    your working tree to the state just before you made that snapshot.
 204<3> At this point the index file still has all the WIP changes you
 205    committed as 'snapshot WIP'.  This updates the index to show your
 206    WIP files as uncommitted.
 207+
 208See also linkgit:git-stash[1].
 209
 210Reset a single file in the index::
 211+
 212Suppose you have added a file to your index, but later decide you do not
 213want to add it to your commit. You can remove the file from the index
 214while keeping your changes with git reset.
 215+
 216------------
 217$ git reset -- frotz.c                      <1>
 218$ git commit -m "Commit files in index"     <2>
 219$ git add frotz.c                           <3>
 220------------
 221+
 222<1> This removes the file from the index while keeping it in the working
 223    directory.
 224<2> This commits all other changes in the index.
 225<3> Adds the file to the index again.
 226
 227Author
 228------
 229Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> and Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 230
 231Documentation
 232--------------
 233Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 234
 235GIT
 236---
 237Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite