CODEWITHSUNDEEP
git
amphibient
amphibient

Reputation: 31248

git status after checking out a previous commit

I wanted to rewind back several commits because some of my coworkers broke the build in their recent changes. So I did

git checkout 7bb648abd7381bee5b92c18ff215b4f8a38935ee

Where 7bb648abd7381bee5b92c18ff215b4f8a38935ee is a commit four commits ago.

However, when I did

git status

it returned

# Not currently on any branch.
nothing to commit (working directory clean)

Why didn't it tell me that I was in the same branch but only four commits behind?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 66

Answers (2)

onionjake
onionjake

Reputation: 4035

You are in a detached head state. See this answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/5772882/1049112 for an excellent explantion of what it means to have a detached head.

Branches (and all heads) only point to a single commit. You are not 'on' a branch unless you do a git checkout <branchname>. Anytime you do another git checkout <something else> you are no longer on that branch.

Upvotes: 1

gturri
gturri

Reputation: 14609

Indeed, you've checked out a commit, not a branch. If you want to move the branch you should do, after your checkout:

git branch -f myBranchName #or "master" if it's the branch you're working on

it will move the branch myBranchName if it already exists.

However, beware: you're going to change a shared history, so make sure you warn every people working on this branch.

Note that Git won't let you push it so easily (to ensure you know what you're doing): you'll have to push -f

Upvotes: 2

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