Undoing Changes

Undoing Changes

Discard unstaged changes to a file

$ git restore <file>

Reverts the file in your working tree to match the last commit. Uncommitted edits are lost.

Unstage a file without losing changes

$ git restore --staged <file>

Removes the file from the index but keeps your edits in the working tree.

Undo the last commit but keep changes staged

$ git reset --soft HEAD~1

The commit is removed but your changes stay in the index, ready to recommit.

Undo the last commit and unstage changes

$ git reset HEAD~1

The default (--mixed). Changes go back to the working tree as unstaged edits.

Undo the last commit and discard all changes

$ git reset --hard HEAD~1

The commit and all changes are gone. Recover with git reflog if needed.

Revert a commit without rewriting history

$ git revert <hash>

Creates a new commit that undoes the changes. Safe to use on shared branches.

Recover a lost commit

$ git reflog                       # find the hash
$ git branch recovered <hash>      # or: git reset --hard <hash>

Works as long as the reflog entry has not expired (default: 30 days).