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git-reset last updated in 2.54.0
NAME
git-reset - Set HEAD or the index to a known state
SYNOPSIS
git reset [--soft | --mixed [-N] | --hard | --merge | --keep] [-q] [<commit>]
git reset [-q] [<tree-ish>] [--] <pathspec>…
git reset [-q] [--pathspec-from-file=<file> [--pathspec-file-nul]] [<tree-ish>]
git reset (--patch | -p) [<tree-ish>] [--] [<pathspec>…]
DESCRIPTION
git reset does either of the following:
-
git reset [<mode>] <commit> changes which commit HEAD points to. This
makes it possible to undo various Git operations, for example commit, merge,
rebase, and pull.
-
When you specify files or directories or pass --patch, git reset updates
the staged version of the specified files.
git reset [<mode>] [<commit>] -
Set the current branch head (HEAD) to point at <commit>.
Depending on <mode>, also update the working directory and/or index
to match the contents of <commit>.
<commit> defaults to HEAD.
Before the operation, ORIG_HEAD is set to the tip of the current branch.
The <mode> must be one of the following (default --mixed):
--mixed -
Leave your working directory unchanged.
Update the index to match the new HEAD, so nothing will be staged.
If -N is specified, mark removed paths as intent-to-add (see
git-add[1]).
--soft -
Leave your working tree files and the index unchanged.
For example, if you have no staged changes, you can use
git reset --soft HEAD~5; git commit
to combine the last 5 commits into 1 commit. This works even with
changes in the working tree, which are left untouched, but such usage
can lead to confusion.
--hard -
Overwrite all files and directories with the version from <commit>,
and may overwrite untracked files. Tracked files not in <commit> are
removed so that the working tree matches <commit>.
Update the index to match the new HEAD, so nothing will be staged.
--merge -
Reset the index and update the files in the working tree that are
different between <commit> and HEAD, but keep those which are
different between the index and working tree (i.e. which have changes
which have not been added).
Mainly exists to reset unmerged index entries, like those left behind by
git am -3 or git switch -m in certain situations.
If a file that is different between <commit> and the index has
unstaged changes, reset is aborted.
--keep -
Resets index entries and updates files in the working tree that are
different between <commit> and HEAD.
If a file that is different between <commit> and HEAD has local
changes, reset is aborted.
--recurse-submodules --no-recurse-submodules -
When the working tree is updated, using --recurse-submodules will
also recursively reset the working tree of all active submodules
according to the commit recorded in the superproject, also setting
the submodules' HEAD to be detached at that commit.
git reset [-q] [<tree-ish>] [--] <pathspec>... git reset [-q] [--pathspec-from-file=<file> [--pathspec-file-nul]] [<tree-ish>] -
For all specified files or directories, set the staged version to
the version from the given commit or tree (which defaults to HEAD).
This means that git reset <pathspec> is the opposite of git add
<pathspec>: it unstages all changes to the specified file(s) or
directories. This is equivalent to git restore --staged <pathspec>....
In this mode, git reset updates only the index (without updating the HEAD or
working tree files). If you want to update the files as well as the index
entries, use git-restore[1].
git reset (--patch | -p) [<tree-ish>] [--] [<pathspec>...] -
Interactively select changes from the difference between the index
and the specified commit or tree (which defaults to HEAD).
The index is modified using the chosen changes.
This means that git reset -p is the opposite of git add -p, i.e.
you can use it to selectively unstage changes. See the "Interactive Mode"
section of git-add[1] to learn how to use the --patch option.
See "Reset, restore and revert" in git[1] for the differences
between the three commands.
OPTIONS
-q --quiet -
Be quiet, only report errors.
--refresh --no-refresh -
Refresh the index after a mixed reset. Enabled by default.
--pathspec-from-file=<file> -
Pathspec is passed in <file> instead of commandline args. If
<file> is exactly - then standard input is used. Pathspec
elements are separated by LF or CR/LF. Pathspec elements can be
quoted as explained for the configuration variable core.quotePath
(see git-config[1]). See also --pathspec-file-nul and
global --literal-pathspecs.
--pathspec-file-nul -
Only meaningful with --pathspec-from-file. Pathspec elements are
separated with NUL character and all other characters are taken
literally (including newlines and quotes).
-U<n> --unified=<n> -
Generate diffs with <n> lines of context. The number of context
lines defaults to diff.context or 3 if the configuration variable
is unset. (-U without <n> is silently accepted as a synonym for
-p due to a historical accident).
--inter-hunk-context=<n> -
Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified <number>
of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.
Defaults to diff.interHunkContext or 0 if the config option
is unset.
-- -
Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
- <pathspec>...
-
Limits the paths affected by the operation.
EXAMPLES
- Undo add
-
$ edit (1)
$ git add frotz.c filfre.c
$ mailx (2)
$ git reset (3)
$ git pull git://info.example.com/ nitfol (4)
-
You are happily working on something, and find the changes
in these files are in good order. You do not want to see them
when you run git diff, because you plan to work on other files
and changes with these files are distracting.
-
Somebody asks you to pull, and the changes sound worthy of merging.
-
However, you already dirtied the index (i.e. your index does
not match the HEAD commit). But you know the pull you are going
to make does not affect frotz.c or filfre.c, so you revert the
index changes for these two files. Your changes in working tree
remain there.
-
Then you can pull and merge, leaving frotz.c and filfre.c
changes still in the working tree.
- Undo a commit and redo
-
$ git commit ...
$ git reset --soft HEAD^ (1)
$ edit (2)
$ git commit -a -c ORIG_HEAD (3)
-
This is most often done when you remembered what you
just committed is incomplete, or you misspelled your commit
message, or both. Leaves working tree as it was before "reset".
-
Make corrections to working tree files.
-
"reset" copies the old head to .git/ORIG_HEAD; redo the
commit by starting with its log message. If you do not need to
edit the message further, you can give -C option instead.
- Undo a commit, making it a topic branch
-
$ git branch topic/wip (1)
$ git reset --hard HEAD~3 (2)
$ git switch topic/wip (3)
-
You have made some commits, but realize they were premature
to be in the master branch. You want to continue polishing
them in a topic branch, so create topic/wip branch off of the
current HEAD.
-
Rewind the master branch to get rid of those three commits.
-
Switch to topic/wip branch and keep working.
- Undo commits permanently
-
$ git commit ...
$ git reset --hard HEAD~3 (1)
-
The last three commits (HEAD, HEAD^, and HEAD~2) were bad
and you do not want to ever see them again. Do not do this if
you have already given these commits to somebody else. (See the
"RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE" section in git-rebase[1]
for the implications of doing so.)
- Undo a merge or pull
-
$ git pull (1)
Auto-merging nitfol
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in nitfol
Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.
$ git reset --hard (2)
$ git pull . topic/branch (3)
Updating from 41223... to 13134...
Fast-forward
$ git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD (4)
-
Try to update from the upstream resulted in a lot of
conflicts; you were not ready to spend a lot of time merging
right now, so you decide to do that later.
-
"pull" has not made merge commit, so git reset --hard
which is a synonym for git reset --hard HEAD clears the mess
from the index file and the working tree.
-
Merge a topic branch into the current branch, which resulted
in a fast-forward.
-
But you decided that the topic branch is not ready for public
consumption yet. "pull" or "merge" always leaves the original
tip of the current branch in ORIG_HEAD, so resetting hard to it
brings your index file and the working tree back to that state,
and resets the tip of the branch to that commit.
- Undo a merge or pull inside a dirty working tree
-
$ git pull (1)
Auto-merging nitfol
Merge made by recursive.
nitfol | 20 +++++----
...
$ git reset --merge ORIG_HEAD (2)
-
Even if you may have local modifications in your
working tree, you can safely say git pull when you know
that the change in the other branch does not overlap with
them.
-
After inspecting the result of the merge, you may find
that the change in the other branch is unsatisfactory. Running
git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD will let you go back to where you
were, but it will discard your local changes, which you do not
want. git reset --merge keeps your local changes.
- Interrupted workflow
-
Suppose you are interrupted by an urgent fix request while you
are in the middle of a large change. The files in your
working tree are not in any shape to be committed yet, but you
need to get to the other branch for a quick bugfix.
$ git switch feature ;# you were working in "feature" branch and
$ work work work ;# got interrupted
$ git commit -a -m "snapshot WIP" (1)
$ git switch master
$ fix fix fix
$ git commit ;# commit with real log
$ git switch feature
$ git reset --soft HEAD^ ;# go back to WIP state (2)
$ git reset (3)
-
This commit will get blown away so a throw-away log message is OK.
-
This removes the WIP commit from the commit history, and sets
your working tree to the state just before you made that snapshot.
-
At this point the index file still has all the WIP changes you
committed as snapshot WIP. This updates the index to show your
WIP files as uncommitted.
- Reset a single file in the index
-
Suppose you have added a file to your index, but later decide you do not
want to add it to your commit. You can remove the file from the index
while keeping your changes with git reset.
$ git reset -- frotz.c (1)
$ git commit -m "Commit files in index" (2)
$ git add frotz.c (3)
-
This removes the file from the index while keeping it in the working
directory.
-
This commits all other changes in the index.
-
Adds the file to the index again.
- Keep changes in working tree while discarding some previous commits
-
Suppose you are working on something and you commit it, and then you
continue working a bit more, but now you think that what you have in
your working tree should be in another branch that has nothing to do
with what you committed previously. You can start a new branch and
reset it while keeping the changes in your working tree.
$ git tag start
$ git switch -c branch1
$ edit
$ git commit ... (1)
$ edit
$ git switch -c branch2 (2)
$ git reset --keep start (3)
-
This commits your first edits in branch1.
-
In the ideal world, you could have realized that the earlier
commit did not belong to the new topic when you created and switched
to branch2 (i.e. git switch -c branch2 start), but nobody is
perfect.
-
But you can use reset --keep to remove the unwanted commit after
you switched to branch2.
- Split a commit apart into a sequence of commits
-
Suppose that you have created lots of logically separate changes and committed
them together. Then, later you decide that it might be better to have each
logical chunk associated with its own commit. You can use git reset to rewind
history without changing the contents of your local files, and then successively
use git add -p to interactively select which hunks to include into each commit,
using git commit -c to pre-populate the commit message.
$ git reset -N HEAD^ (1)
$ git add -p (2)
$ git diff --cached (3)
$ git commit -c HEAD@{1} (4)
... (5)
$ git add ... (6)
$ git diff --cached (7)
$ git commit ... (8)
-
First, reset the history back one commit so that we remove the original
commit, but leave the working tree with all the changes. The -N ensures
that any new files added with HEAD are still marked so that git add -p
will find them.
-
Next, we interactively select diff hunks to add using the git add -p
facility. This will ask you about each diff hunk in sequence and you can
use simple commands such as "yes, include this", "No don’t include this"
or even the very powerful "edit" facility.
-
Once satisfied with the hunks you want to include, you should verify what
has been prepared for the first commit by using git diff --cached. This
shows all the changes that have been moved into the index and are about
to be committed.
-
Next, commit the changes stored in the index. The -c option specifies to
pre-populate the commit message from the original message that you started
with in the first commit. This is helpful to avoid retyping it. The
HEAD@{1} is a special notation for the commit that HEAD used to be at
prior to the original reset commit (1 change ago).
See git-reflog[1] for more details. You may also use any other
valid commit reference.
-
You can repeat steps 2-4 multiple times to break the original code into
any number of commits.
-
Now you’ve split out many of the changes into their own commits, and might
no longer use the patch mode of git add, in order to select all remaining
uncommitted changes.
-
Once again, check to verify that you’ve included what you want to. You may
also wish to verify that git diff doesn’t show any remaining changes to be
committed later.
-
And finally create the final commit.
DISCUSSION
The tables below show what happens when running:
git reset --option target
to reset the HEAD to another commit (target) with the different
reset options depending on the state of the files.
In these tables, A, B, C and D are some different states of a
file. For example, the first line of the first table means that if a
file is in state A in the working tree, in state B in the index, in
state C in HEAD and in state D in the target, then git reset --soft
target will leave the file in the working tree in state A and in the
index in state B. It resets (i.e. moves) the HEAD (i.e. the tip of
the current branch, if you are on one) to target (which has the file
in state D).
working index HEAD target working index HEAD
----------------------------------------------------
A B C D --soft A B D
--mixed A D D
--hard D D D
--merge (disallowed)
--keep (disallowed)
working index HEAD target working index HEAD
----------------------------------------------------
A B C C --soft A B C
--mixed A C C
--hard C C C
--merge (disallowed)
--keep A C C
working index HEAD target working index HEAD
----------------------------------------------------
B B C D --soft B B D
--mixed B D D
--hard D D D
--merge D D D
--keep (disallowed)
working index HEAD target working index HEAD
----------------------------------------------------
B B C C --soft B B C
--mixed B C C
--hard C C C
--merge C C C
--keep B C C
working index HEAD target working index HEAD
----------------------------------------------------
B C C D --soft B C D
--mixed B D D
--hard D D D
--merge (disallowed)
--keep (disallowed)
working index HEAD target working index HEAD
----------------------------------------------------
B C C C --soft B C C
--mixed B C C
--hard C C C
--merge B C C
--keep B C C
git reset --merge is meant to be used when resetting out of a conflicted
merge. Any mergy operation guarantees that the working tree file that is
involved in the merge does not have a local change with respect to the index
before it starts, and that it writes the result out to the working tree. So if
we see some difference between the index and the target and also
between the index and the working tree, then it means that we are not
resetting out from a state that a mergy operation left after failing
with a conflict. That is why we disallow --merge option in this case.
git reset --keep is meant to be used when removing some of the last
commits in the current branch while keeping changes in the working
tree. If there could be conflicts between the changes in the commit we
want to remove and the changes in the working tree we want to keep,
the reset is disallowed. That’s why it is disallowed if there are both
changes between the working tree and HEAD, and between HEAD and the
target. To be safe, it is also disallowed when there are unmerged
entries.
The following tables show what happens when there are unmerged
entries:
working index HEAD target working index HEAD
----------------------------------------------------
X U A B --soft (disallowed)
--mixed X B B
--hard B B B
--merge B B B
--keep (disallowed)
working index HEAD target working index HEAD
----------------------------------------------------
X U A A --soft (disallowed)
--mixed X A A
--hard A A A
--merge A A A
--keep (disallowed)
X means any state and U means an unmerged index.
reset
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