Going back

You committed bad code, or you destroyed your working tree with a bad reset --hard? This lesson shows you the rescue commands, from least destructive to most destructive.

Discard uncommitted changes

If you modified a file but have not staged it yet, and you want to revert to the committed version:

$git restore README.md

If you already staged changes and want to unstage them (without losing the content):

$git restore --staged README.md

Undo a commit with git revert (safe)

git revert creates a new commit that reverses the effects of the targeted commit. History is preserved, no existing commit is deleted. This is the safe method, especially if you have already pushed.

$git revert HEAD

HEAD refers to the latest commit. You can also pass a hash: git revert a3f5b6c.

Move back in history with git reset

git reset moves the branch pointer to an earlier commit. There are three modes, from least to most destructive:

--soft mode: commits are undone, files remain staged. Useful for combining commits.

$git reset --soft HEAD~1

--mixed mode (default): commits are undone, files are unstaged but changes remain.

$git reset HEAD~1

--hard mode: commits are undone and changes are DELETED. Unrecoverable without reflog.

$git reset --hard HEAD~1

The safety net: git reflog

git reflog is your last resort. It lists everything HEAD has pointed to over the past weeks, even after a reset --hard. It is Git's secret memory.

$git reflog

You see a list of entries with identifiers like HEAD@{2}. To go back to a specific state:

$git reset --hard HEAD@

Recover a file from an old commit

If you only want to recover a single file from a specific commit, without touching the rest:

$git restore --source a3f5b6c README.md

The file returns to its state in commit a3f5b6c, ready to stage or discard.