Undoing Things

Mistakes happen! Git provides several ways to undo changes at different stages.

Undo Changes in Working Directory

# Discard changes to a specific file (revert to last commit)
git checkout -- filename.txt

# Modern syntax
git restore filename.txt

# Discard ALL uncommitted changes
git checkout -- .
git restore .

Unstage Files

# Remove from staging area (keep changes)
git reset HEAD filename.txt

# Modern syntax
git restore --staged filename.txt

Amend the Last Commit

# Fix the last commit message
git commit --amend -m "New corrected message"

# Add forgotten files to the last commit
git add forgotten-file.txt
git commit --amend --no-edit

Revert a Commit

# Create a new commit that undoes a previous commit (safe)
git revert abc1234

This is the safe way to undo — it creates a new commit rather than erasing history.

Reset to a Previous Commit

# Soft reset — uncommit but keep changes staged
git reset --soft HEAD~1

# Mixed reset (default) — uncommit and unstage
git reset HEAD~1

# Hard reset — uncommit and DELETE all changes (dangerous!)
git reset --hard HEAD~1

Important Warning

• git revert — safe, creates a new undo commit
• git reset --soft — safe, keeps your changes
• git reset --hard — DANGEROUS, permanently deletes changes

Use git revert for shared branches. Use git reset only for local, unpushed commits.