Documentation / git-reset.txton commit Merge git://repo.or.cz/git-gui into maint (cef19c7)
   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] [<commit>]
  12'git-reset' [--mixed] <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,
  24gitlink: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 "Added but not yet committed", as gitlink: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<commit>::
  49        Commit to make the current HEAD.
  50
  51Examples
  52--------
  53
  54Undo a commit and redo::
  55+
  56------------
  57$ git commit ...
  58$ git reset --soft HEAD^      <1>
  59$ edit                        <2>
  60$ git commit -a -c ORIG_HEAD  <3>
  61------------
  62+
  63<1> This is most often done when you remembered what you
  64just committed is incomplete, or you misspelled your commit
  65message, or both.  Leaves working tree as it was before "reset".
  66<2> make corrections to working tree files.
  67<3> "reset" copies the old head to .git/ORIG_HEAD; redo the
  68commit by starting with its log message.  If you do not need to
  69edit the message further, you can give -C option instead.
  70
  71Undo commits permanently::
  72+
  73------------
  74$ git commit ...
  75$ git reset --hard HEAD~3   <1>
  76------------
  77+
  78<1> The last three commits (HEAD, HEAD^, and HEAD~2) were bad
  79and you do not want to ever see them again.  Do *not* do this if
  80you have already given these commits to somebody else.
  81
  82Undo a commit, making it a topic branch::
  83+
  84------------
  85$ git branch topic/wip     <1>
  86$ git reset --hard HEAD~3  <2>
  87$ git checkout topic/wip   <3>
  88------------
  89+
  90<1> You have made some commits, but realize they were premature
  91to be in the "master" branch.  You want to continue polishing
  92them in a topic branch, so create "topic/wip" branch off of the
  93current HEAD.
  94<2> Rewind the master branch to get rid of those three commits.
  95<3> Switch to "topic/wip" branch and keep working.
  96
  97Undo add::
  98+
  99------------
 100$ edit                                     <1>
 101$ git add frotz.c filfre.c
 102$ mailx                                    <2>
 103$ git reset                                <3>
 104$ git pull git://info.example.com/ nitfol  <4>
 105------------
 106+
 107<1> you are happily working on something, and find the changes
 108in these files are in good order.  You do not want to see them
 109when you run "git diff", because you plan to work on other files
 110and changes with these files are distracting.
 111<2> somebody asks you to pull, and the changes sounds worthy of merging.
 112<3> however, you already dirtied the index (i.e. your index does
 113not match the HEAD commit).  But you know the pull you are going
 114to make does not affect frotz.c nor filfre.c, so you revert the
 115index changes for these two files.  Your changes in working tree
 116remain there.
 117<4> then you can pull and merge, leaving frotz.c and filfre.c
 118changes still in the working tree.
 119
 120Undo a merge or pull::
 121+
 122------------
 123$ git pull                         <1>
 124Auto-merging nitfol
 125CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in nitfol
 126Automatic merge failed/prevented; fix up by hand
 127$ git reset --hard                 <2>
 128$ git pull . topic/branch          <3>
 129Updating from 41223... to 13134...
 130Fast forward
 131$ git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD       <4>
 132------------
 133+
 134<1> try to update from the upstream resulted in a lot of
 135conflicts; you were not ready to spend a lot of time merging
 136right now, so you decide to do that later.
 137<2> "pull" has not made merge commit, so "git reset --hard"
 138which is a synonym for "git reset --hard HEAD" clears the mess
 139from the index file and the working tree.
 140<3> merge a topic branch into the current branch, which resulted
 141in a fast forward.
 142<4> but you decided that the topic branch is not ready for public
 143consumption yet.  "pull" or "merge" always leaves the original
 144tip of the current branch in ORIG_HEAD, so resetting hard to it
 145brings your index file and the working tree back to that state,
 146and resets the tip of the branch to that commit.
 147
 148Interrupted workflow::
 149+
 150Suppose you are interrupted by an urgent fix request while you
 151are in the middle of a large change.  The files in your
 152working tree are not in any shape to be committed yet, but you
 153need to get to the other branch for a quick bugfix.
 154+
 155------------
 156$ git checkout feature ;# you were working in "feature" branch and
 157$ work work work       ;# got interrupted
 158$ git commit -a -m 'snapshot WIP'                 <1>
 159$ git checkout master
 160$ fix fix fix
 161$ git commit ;# commit with real log
 162$ git checkout feature
 163$ git reset --soft HEAD^ ;# go back to WIP state  <2>
 164$ git reset                                       <3>
 165------------
 166+
 167<1> This commit will get blown away so a throw-away log message is OK.
 168<2> This removes the 'WIP' commit from the commit history, and sets
 169    your working tree to the state just before you made that snapshot.
 170<3> At this point the index file still has all the WIP changes you
 171    committed as 'snapshot WIP'.  This updates the index to show your
 172    WIP files as uncommitted.
 173
 174Author
 175------
 176Written by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> and Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 177
 178Documentation
 179--------------
 180Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 181
 182GIT
 183---
 184Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite