STANNIX Solutions for the Real World

Services About Contact Community

Manual: git-reset

GIT-RESET(1) Git Manual GIT-RESET(1)

NAME
git-reset - Set `HEAD` or the index to a known state

DESCRIPTION
git reset does either of the following:

1. git reset [] changes which commit HEAD points to. This makes it possible to undo
various Git operations, for example commit, merge, rebase, and pull.

2. When you specify files or directories or pass --patch, git reset updates the staged version of
the specified files.

git reset [] []
Set the current branch head (HEAD) to point at . Depending on , also update the
working directory and/or index to match the contents of . defaults to HEAD.
Before the operation, ORIG_HEAD is set to the tip of the current branch.

The 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 , and may overwrite
untracked files. Tracked files not in are removed so that the working tree
matches . 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
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 and the index has unstaged
changes, reset is aborted.

--keep
Resets index entries and updates files in the working tree that are different between
and HEAD. If a file that is different between 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] [] [--] ..., git reset [-q] [--pathspec-from-file=
[--pathspec-file-nul]] []
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 is the opposite of git add : it unstages all
changes to the specified file(s) or directories. This is equivalent to git restore --staged
....

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) [] [--] [...]
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=
Pathspec is passed in instead of commandline args. If 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, --unified=
Generate diffs with lines of context. Defaults to diff.context or 3 if the config option is
unset.

--inter-hunk-context=
Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified 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.

...
Limits the paths affected by the operation.

For more details, see the pathspec entry in gitglossary(7).

EXAMPLES
Undo add

$ edit (1)
$ git add frotz.c filfre.c
$ mailx (2)
$ git reset (3)
$ git pull git://info.example.com/ nitfol (4)

1. 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.
2. Somebody asks you to pull, and the changes sound worthy of merging.
3. 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.
4. 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)

1. 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".
2. Make corrections to working tree files.
3. "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.

See also the --amend option to git-commit(1).

Undo a commit, making it a topic branch

$ git branch topic/wip (1)
$ git reset --hard HEAD~3 (2)
$ git switch topic/wip (3)

1. 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.
2. Rewind the master branch to get rid of those three commits.
3. Switch to topic/wip branch and keep working.

Undo commits permanently

$ git commit ...
$ git reset --hard HEAD~3 (1)

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)

1. 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.
2. "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.
3. Merge a topic branch into the current branch, which resulted in a fast-forward.
4. 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)

1. 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.
2. 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)

1. This commit will get blown away so a throw-away log message is OK.
2. This removes the WIP commit from the commit history, and sets your working tree
to the state just before you made that snapshot.
3. 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.

See also git-stash(1).

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)

1. This removes the file from the index while keeping it in the working directory.
2. This commits all other changes in the index.
3. 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)

1. This commits your first edits in branch1.
2. 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.
3. 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)

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. You can repeat steps 2-4 multiple times to break the original code into any
number of commits.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.

GIT
Part of the git(1) suite

Git 2.53.0 03/02/2026 GIT-RESET(1)

← Back to Index

Manual: git-reset

Related Commands: