Documentation / git-reset.txton commit Git 1.6.5.9 (ec82874)
   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'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-p::
  56--patch::
  57        Interactively select hunks in the difference between the index
  58        and <commit> (defaults to HEAD).  The chosen hunks are applied
  59        in reverse to the index.
  60+
  61This means that `git reset -p` is the opposite of `git add -p` (see
  62linkgit:git-add[1]).
  63
  64-q::
  65        Be quiet, only report errors.
  66
  67<commit>::
  68        Commit to make the current HEAD. If not given defaults to HEAD.
  69
  70Examples
  71--------
  72
  73Undo a commit and redo::
  74+
  75------------
  76$ git commit ...
  77$ git reset --soft HEAD^      <1>
  78$ edit                        <2>
  79$ git commit -a -c ORIG_HEAD  <3>
  80------------
  81+
  82<1> This is most often done when you remembered what you
  83just committed is incomplete, or you misspelled your commit
  84message, or both.  Leaves working tree as it was before "reset".
  85<2> Make corrections to working tree files.
  86<3> "reset" copies the old head to .git/ORIG_HEAD; redo the
  87commit by starting with its log message.  If you do not need to
  88edit the message further, you can give -C option instead.
  89+
  90See also the --amend option to linkgit:git-commit[1].
  91
  92Undo commits permanently::
  93+
  94------------
  95$ git commit ...
  96$ git reset --hard HEAD~3   <1>
  97------------
  98+
  99<1> The last three commits (HEAD, HEAD^, and HEAD~2) were bad
 100and you do not want to ever see them again.  Do *not* do this if
 101you have already given these commits to somebody else.  (See the
 102"RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE" section in linkgit:git-rebase[1] for
 103the implications of doing so.)
 104
 105Undo a commit, making it a topic branch::
 106+
 107------------
 108$ git branch topic/wip     <1>
 109$ git reset --hard HEAD~3  <2>
 110$ git checkout topic/wip   <3>
 111------------
 112+
 113<1> You have made some commits, but realize they were premature
 114to be in the "master" branch.  You want to continue polishing
 115them in a topic branch, so create "topic/wip" branch off of the
 116current HEAD.
 117<2> Rewind the master branch to get rid of those three commits.
 118<3> Switch to "topic/wip" branch and keep working.
 119
 120Undo add::
 121+
 122------------
 123$ edit                                     <1>
 124$ git add frotz.c filfre.c
 125$ mailx                                    <2>
 126$ git reset                                <3>
 127$ git pull git://info.example.com/ nitfol  <4>
 128------------
 129+
 130<1> You are happily working on something, and find the changes
 131in these files are in good order.  You do not want to see them
 132when you run "git diff", because you plan to work on other files
 133and changes with these files are distracting.
 134<2> Somebody asks you to pull, and the changes sounds worthy of merging.
 135<3> However, you already dirtied the index (i.e. your index does
 136not match the HEAD commit).  But you know the pull you are going
 137to make does not affect frotz.c nor filfre.c, so you revert the
 138index changes for these two files.  Your changes in working tree
 139remain there.
 140<4> Then you can pull and merge, leaving frotz.c and filfre.c
 141changes still in the working tree.
 142
 143Undo a merge or pull::
 144+
 145------------
 146$ git pull                         <1>
 147Auto-merging nitfol
 148CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in nitfol
 149Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.
 150$ git reset --hard                 <2>
 151$ git pull . topic/branch          <3>
 152Updating from 41223... to 13134...
 153Fast forward
 154$ git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD       <4>
 155------------
 156+
 157<1> Try to update from the upstream resulted in a lot of
 158conflicts; you were not ready to spend a lot of time merging
 159right now, so you decide to do that later.
 160<2> "pull" has not made merge commit, so "git reset --hard"
 161which is a synonym for "git reset --hard HEAD" clears the mess
 162from the index file and the working tree.
 163<3> Merge a topic branch into the current branch, which resulted
 164in a fast forward.
 165<4> But you decided that the topic branch is not ready for public
 166consumption yet.  "pull" or "merge" always leaves the original
 167tip of the current branch in ORIG_HEAD, so resetting hard to it
 168brings your index file and the working tree back to that state,
 169and resets the tip of the branch to that commit.
 170
 171Undo a merge or pull inside a dirty work tree::
 172+
 173------------
 174$ git pull                         <1>
 175Auto-merging nitfol
 176Merge made by recursive.
 177 nitfol                |   20 +++++----
 178 ...
 179$ git reset --merge ORIG_HEAD      <2>
 180------------
 181+
 182<1> Even if you may have local modifications in your
 183working tree, you can safely say "git pull" when you know
 184that the change in the other branch does not overlap with
 185them.
 186<2> After inspecting the result of the merge, you may find
 187that the change in the other branch is unsatisfactory.  Running
 188"git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD" will let you go back to where you
 189were, but it will discard your local changes, which you do not
 190want.  "git reset --merge" keeps your local changes.
 191
 192
 193Interrupted workflow::
 194+
 195Suppose you are interrupted by an urgent fix request while you
 196are in the middle of a large change.  The files in your
 197working tree are not in any shape to be committed yet, but you
 198need to get to the other branch for a quick bugfix.
 199+
 200------------
 201$ git checkout feature ;# you were working in "feature" branch and
 202$ work work work       ;# got interrupted
 203$ git commit -a -m "snapshot WIP"                 <1>
 204$ git checkout master
 205$ fix fix fix
 206$ git commit ;# commit with real log
 207$ git checkout feature
 208$ git reset --soft HEAD^ ;# go back to WIP state  <2>
 209$ git reset                                       <3>
 210------------
 211+
 212<1> This commit will get blown away so a throw-away log message is OK.
 213<2> This removes the 'WIP' commit from the commit history, and sets
 214    your working tree to the state just before you made that snapshot.
 215<3> At this point the index file still has all the WIP changes you
 216    committed as 'snapshot WIP'.  This updates the index to show your
 217    WIP files as uncommitted.
 218+
 219See also linkgit:git-stash[1].
 220
 221Reset a single file in the index::
 222+
 223Suppose you have added a file to your index, but later decide you do not
 224want to add it to your commit. You can remove the file from the index
 225while keeping your changes with git reset.
 226+
 227------------
 228$ git reset -- frotz.c                      <1>
 229$ git commit -m "Commit files in index"     <2>
 230$ git add frotz.c                           <3>
 231------------
 232+
 233<1> This removes the file from the index while keeping it in the working
 234    directory.
 235<2> This commits all other changes in the index.
 236<3> Adds the file to the index again.
 237
 238Author
 239------
 240Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> and Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 241
 242Documentation
 243--------------
 244Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 245
 246GIT
 247---
 248Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite