How do I revert a Git repository to a previous commit?

Question

How do I revert from my current state to a snapshot made on a certain commit?

If I do git log, then I get the following output:

$ git log
commit a867b4af366350be2e7c21b8de9cc6504678a61b`
Author: Me <me@me.com>
Date:   Thu Nov 4 18:59:41 2010 -0400

blah blah blah...

commit 25eee4caef46ae64aa08e8ab3f988bc917ee1ce4
Author: Me <me@me.com>
Date:   Thu Nov 4 05:13:39 2010 -0400

more blah blah blah...

commit 0766c053c0ea2035e90f504928f8df3c9363b8bd
Author: Me <me@me.com>
Date:   Thu Nov 4 00:55:06 2010 -0400

And yet more blah blah...

commit 0d1d7fc32e5a947fbd92ee598033d85bfc445a50
Author: Me <me@me.com>
Date:   Wed Nov 3 23:56:08 2010 -0400

Yep, more blah blah.

How do I revert to the commit from November 3, i.e. commit 0d1d7fc?

Answer 1

Note: As mentioned in comments don't do this if you're sharing your branch with other people who have copies of the old commits

1. Resetting Locally: Quick & Clean

For a fast local cleanup, the Git reset approach is ideal. This command resets your working directory and removes untracked files:

git reset --hard <commitId> && git clean -f

This method has been my go-to option for its simplicity and effectiveness.

2. Resetting Remote Branches to Erase Mistaken Commits

If the unwanted commits have already been pushed to a remote repository, you’ll need to update the remote branch by force pushing:

git reset --hard <commitId> && git push origin <branchName> --force

This ensures that the remote branch reflects your reset state by removing the unwanted commits from the remote as well.

In my workflow as a solo developer, I can safely use the forced method since there are no collaborators involved. However, if you share your branch with others, consider using:

git push --force-with-lease

This safer alternative helps prevent overwriting any new commits added remotely.

3. An Interactive Alternative

If you prefer a less drastic method for cleaning up untracked files, you can use the interactive clean command:

git clean -i

This command lets you review and selectively remove files, offering a safer way to manage your working directory.

⚠️ Important Considerations:

• It is super important to NOT use --force if you’re sharing your branch with others. It rewrites history and can cause issues for teammates. Instead, consider git push --force-with-lease to avoid overwriting any new commits added remotely.
• git clean -f removes untracked files but doesn’t affect commits. If you need a safer, interactive way to clean files, use:

Answer 2

Lots of complicated and dangerous answers here, but it's actually easy:

git revert --no-commit 0d1d7fc3..HEAD
git commit
git push

This will revert everything from the HEAD back to the commit hash (excluded), meaning it will recreate that commit state in the working tree as if every commit after 0d1d7fc3 had been walked back. You can then commit the current tree, and it will create a brand new commit essentially equivalent to the commit you "reverted" to.

(The --no-commit flag lets git revert all the commits at once- otherwise you'll be prompted for a message for each commit in the range, littering your history with unnecessary new commits.)

This is a safe and easy way to rollback to a previous state. No history is destroyed, so it can be used for commits that have already been made public.

---

Note on merge commits:
If one of the commits between 0766c053..HEAD (inclusive) is a merge then there will be an error popping up (to do with no -m specified). The following link may help those encountering that: Why does git revert complain about a missing -m option? (thanks @timhc22 for pointing out)

Answer 3

This depends a lot on what you mean by "revert".

Temporarily switch to a different commit

If you want to temporarily go back to it, fool around, then come back to where you are, all you have to do is check out the desired commit:

# This will detach your HEAD, that is, leave you with no branch checked out:
git checkout 0d1d7fc32

Or if you want to make commits while you're there, go ahead and make a new branch while you're at it:

git checkout -b old-state 0d1d7fc32

To go back to where you were, just check out the branch you were on again. (If you've made changes, as always when switching branches, you'll have to deal with them as appropriate. You could reset to throw them away; you could stash, checkout, stash pop to take them with you; you could commit them to a branch there if you want a branch there.)

Hard delete unpublished commits

If, on the other hand, you want to really get rid of everything you've done since then, there are two possibilities. One, if you haven't published any of these commits, simply reset:

# This will destroy any local modifications.
# Don't do it if you have uncommitted work you want to keep.
git reset --hard 0d1d7fc32

# Alternatively, if there's work to keep:
git stash
git reset --hard 0d1d7fc32
git stash pop
# This saves the modifications, then reapplies that patch after resetting.
# You could get merge conflicts, if you've modified things which were
# changed since the commit you reset to.

If you mess up, you've already thrown away your local changes, but you can at least get back to where you were before by resetting again.

Undo published commits with new commits

On the other hand, if you've published the work, you probably don't want to reset the branch, since that's effectively rewriting history. In that case, you could indeed revert the commits. In many enterprise organisations, the concept of "protected" branches will even prevent history from being rewritten on some major branches. In this case, reverting is your only option.

With Git, revert has a very specific meaning: create a commit with the reverse patch to cancel it out. This way you don't rewrite any history.

First figure out what commits to revert. Depending on the technique chosen below, you want to either revert only the merge commits, or only the non-merge commits.

# This lists all merge commits between 0d1d7fc and HEAD:
git log --merges --pretty=format:"%h" 0d1d7fc..HEAD | tr '\n' ' '

# This lists all non merge commits between 0d1d7fc and HEAD:
git log --no-merges --pretty=format:"%h" 0d1d7fc..HEAD | tr '\n' ' '

Note: if you revert multiple commits, the order matters. Start with the most recent commit.

# This will create three separate revert commits, use non merge commits only:
git revert a867b4af 25eee4ca 0766c053

# It also takes ranges. This will revert the last two commits:
git revert HEAD~2..HEAD

# Similarly, you can revert a range of commits using commit hashes (non inclusive of first hash):
git revert 0d1d7fc..a867b4a

# Reverting a merge commit. You can also use a range of merge commits here.
git revert -m 1 <merge_commit_sha>

# To get just one, you could use `rebase -i` to squash them afterwards
# Or, you could do it manually (be sure to do this at top level of the repo)
# get your index and work tree into the desired state, without changing HEAD:
git checkout 0d1d7fc32 .

# Then commit. Be sure and write a good message describing what you just did
git commit

The git-revert manpage actually covers a lot of this in its description. Another useful link is this git-scm.com section discussing git-revert.

If you decide you didn't want to revert after all, you can revert the revert (as described here) or reset back to before the revert (see the previous section).

You may also find this answer helpful in this case:
How can I move HEAD back to a previous location? (Detached head) & Undo commits

Answer 4

This solution does not require a force push and it works for merge commits too.

Idea: You basically want to replace the current working tree state with the one from a previous commit and then create a commit out of it. Ignored files should best be not changed.

Here is how:

1. Emtpy the working tree *.

   git rm -r --cached . && git clean -f -d
   

2. Bring the working tree in the state we want **.

   git checkout 0d1d7fc3 .
   

3. Create the revert commit.

   git add --all && git commit -m "revert to 0d1d7fc3"
   

---

It does not delete anything (pushed or upushed) from the history. It produces one clean commit which represents the state we want to revert back to.

---

_{* by removing untracked but not ignored files (the ones specified in .gitignore) from working tree. The working tree is empty except for the ignored files which we wanted to keep (if not specifiy -x option for clean)}

_{** When a path is specified (here: .), checkout leaves HEAD alone.}

Answer 5

Rogue Coder?

Working on your own and just want it to work? Follow these instructions below, they’ve worked reliably for me and many others for years.

Working with others? Git is complicated. Read the comments below this answer, consider other answers, and discuss with your team before you do something rash.

Reverting Working Copy to Most Recent Commit

To revert to the previous commit, ignoring any changes:

git reset --hard HEAD

where HEAD is the last commit in your current branch

Reverting The Working Copy to an Older Commit

To revert to a commit that's older than the most recent commit:

# Resets index to former commit; replace '56e05fced' with your commit code
git reset 56e05fced 

# Moves pointer back to previous HEAD
git reset --soft HEAD@{1}

git commit -m "Revert to 56e05fced"

# Updates working copy to reflect the new commit
git reset --hard

# Push your changes to respective branch
git push -f

Credits go to a similar Stack Overflow question, Revert to a commit by a SHA hash in Git?.

Answer 6

There is a command (not a part of core Git, but it is in the git-extras package) specifically for reverting and staging old commits:

git undo

Per the man page, it can also be used as such:

# Remove the latest three commits
git undo 3

Answer 7

If the situation is an urgent one, and you just want to do what the questioner asked in a quick and dirty way, assuming your project is under a directory called, for example, "my project":

---

QUICK AND DIRTY: depending on the circumstances, quick and dirty may in fact be very GOOD. What my solution here does is NOT replace irreversibly the files you have in your working directory with files hauled up/extracted from the depths of the git repository lurking beneath your .git/ directory using fiendishly clever and diabolically powerful git commands, of which there are many. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO SUCH DEEP-SEA DIVING TO RECOVER what may appear to be a disastrous situation, and attempting to do so without sufficient expertise may prove fatal.

---

1. Copy the whole directory and call it something else, like "my project - copy". Assuming your git repository ("repo") files are under the "my project" directory (the default place for them, under a directory called ".git"), you will now have copied both your work files and your repo files.

2. Do this in the directory "my project":

    .../my project $ git reset --hard [first-4-letters&numbers-of-commit's-SHA]
   

This will return the state of the repo under "my project" to what it was when you made that commit (a "commit" means a snapshot of your working files). All commits since the "resetted" commit will be lost forever under "my project", BUT... they will still be present in the repo under "my project - copy" since you copied all those files - including the ones in the repo, under .../.git/.

You then have two versions on your system... you can examine or copy or modify files of interest, or whatever, from the previous commit. You can completely discard the files under "my project - copy", if you have decided the new work since the restored commit was going nowhere...

The obvious thing if you want to carry on with the state of the project without actually discarding the work since this retrieved commit is to rename your directory again: Delete the project containing the retrieved commit (or give it a temporary name) and rename your "my project - copy" directory back to "my project". Then maybe try to understand some of the other answers here, and probably do another commit fairly soon.

Git is a brilliant creation but absolutely no-one is able to just "pick it up on the fly": also people who try to explain it far too often assume prior knowledge of other VCS [Version Control Systems] and delve far too deep far too soon, and commit other terrible crimes, like using interchangeable terms for "checking out" - in ways which sometimes appear almost calculated to confuse a beginner.

To save yourself much stress, learn from my scars. You have to pretty much have to read a book on Git - I'd recommend reading THE BOOK, Pro Git 2nd edition: available for free download etc. from git central. Published 2014 but, as at early 2022, still the best. Do it sooner rather than later: Git is destined to be part of your life from now on. If you do, bear in mind that much of the complexity of Git comes from branching and then remerging: the Pro Git book actually introduces this central aspect very gently, but you can skip those parts in any book on your first read. From your question there's no reason why people should be blinding you with science.

Especially if, for example, this is a desperate situation and you're a newbie with Git!

PS: (slight caution) One other thought: It is (now) actually quite simple to keep the Git repo in a directory other than the one with the working files. This would mean you would not copy the entire Git repository using the above quick & dirty solution. See the answer by Fryer using --separate-git-dir here. Bearing that in mind, be warned: If you have a "separate-directory" repository which you don't copy, and you do a hard reset, all versions subsequent to the reset commit really will be lost forever forever, unless you have, as you absolutely should, regularly backed up your repository, preferably to the Cloud (e.g. Google Drive) among other places.

On this subject of "backing up to the Cloud", the next step is to open an account (free of course) with GitHub or (better in my view) GitLab. You can then regularly do a git push command to make your Cloud repo up-to-date "properly". But again, talking about this may be too much too soon: git push has to be configured, can fail to work for a totally baffling technical reason, involves learning about remote repos ("origin", etc). So a quick-and-dirty Cloud-based backup approach may be preferable until you become knowledgeable. Again, the Pro Git book introduces how remote repositories work, and relate to your local repo, very gently and rationally.

Answer 8

Before answering let's add some background, explaining what this HEAD is.

First of all what is HEAD?

HEAD is simply a reference to the current commit (latest) on the current branch. There can only be a single HEAD at any given time (excluding git worktree).

The content of HEAD is stored inside .git/HEAD, and it contains the 40-bytes SHA-1 hash of the current commit.

---

detached HEAD

If you are not on the latest commit - meaning that HEAD is pointing to a prior commit in history it's called detached HEAD.

On the command-line it will look like this - SHA-1 hash instead of the branch name since the HEAD is not pointing to the the tip of the current branch:

---

A few options on how to recover from a detached HEAD:

---

git checkout

git checkout <commit_id>
git checkout -b <new branch> <commit_id>
git checkout HEAD~X // x is the number of commits t go back

This will checkout new branch pointing to the desired commit. This command will checkout to a given commit.

At this point you can create a branch and start to work from this point on:

# Checkout a given commit.
# Doing so will result in a `detached HEAD` which mean that the `HEAD`
# is not pointing to the latest so you will need to checkout branch
# in order to be able to update the code.
git checkout <commit-id>

# Create a new branch forked to the given commit
git checkout -b <branch name>

---

git reflog

You can always use the reflog as well. git reflog will display any change which updated the HEAD and checking out the desired reflog entry will set the HEAD back to this commit.

Every time the HEAD is modified there will be a new entry in the reflog

git reflog
git checkout HEAD@{...}

This will get you back to your desired commit.

---

git reset HEAD --hard <commit_id>

"Move" your HEAD back to the desired commit.

# This will destroy any local modifications.
# Don't do it if you have uncommitted work you want to keep.
git reset --hard 0d1d7fc32

# Alternatively, if there's work to keep:
git stash
git reset --hard 0d1d7fc32
git stash pop
# This saves the modifications, then reapplies that patch after resetting.
# You could get merge conflicts, if you've modified things which were
# changed since the commit you reset to.

• Note: (Since Git 2.7) you can also use the git rebase --no-autostash as well.

---

This schema illustrates which command does what. As you can see there reset && checkout modify the HEAD.

Answer 9

You can complete all these initial steps yourself and push back to the Git repository.

1. Pull the latest version of your repository from Bitbucket using the git pull --all command.

2. Run the Git log command with -n 4 from your terminal. The number after the -n determines the number of commits in the log starting from the most recent commit in your local history.

   $ git log -n 4
   

3. Reset the head of your repository's history using the git reset --hard HEAD~N where N is the number of commits you want to take the head back. In the following example the head would be set back one commit, to the last commit in the repository history:

4. Push the change to Git repository using git push --force to force push the change.

If you want the Git repository to a previous commit:-

git pull --all
git reset --hard HEAD~1
git push --force

Answer 10

Try resetting to the desired commit:

git reset <COMMIT_ID>

To check COMMIT_ID use:

git log

This will reset all changed files to un-added state.

Now you can checkout all un-added files by

git checkout .

To verify your changes use:

git log

UPDATE

If you have one and only commit in your repo, try

git update-ref -d HEAD

Answer 11

Revert is the command to rollback the commits.

git revert <commit1> <commit2> 

Sample:

git revert 2h3h23233

It is capable of taking range from the HEAD like below. Here 1 says "revert last commit."

git revert HEAD~1..HEAD

And then do:

git push

Answer 12

Caution! This command can cause losing commit history, if user put the wrong commit mistakenly. Always have en extra backup of your git some where else just in case if you do mistakes, than you are a bit safer. :)

I have had a similar issue and wanted to revert back to an earlier commit. In my case I was not interested to keep the newer commit, hence I used Hard.

This is how I did it:

git reset --hard CommitId && git clean -f

This will revert on the local repository, and here after using git push -f will update the remote repository.

git push -f

---

For instance, if you want to completely ignore the commit with the name enforce non-group manage policies from the next image

you'd run

git reset --hard dd52eb9 && git clean -f

followed by

git push -f

After, you won't see that commit (enforce non-group manage policies) there

Answer 13

The best way is:

git reset --hard <commidId> && git push --force

This will reset the branch to the specific commit and then will upload the remote server with the same commits as you have in local.

Be careful with the --force flag as it removes all the subsequent commits after the selected commit without the option to recover them.

Answer 14

Resetting Staged Changes and Commits

The git reset command lets you change the HEAD- the latest commit your working tree points to - of your repository. It modifies either the staging area or the staging area and working tree.

Git's ability to craft commits exactly like you want means that you sometimes need to undo changes to the changes you staged with git add. You can do that by calling git reset HEAD <file to change>.

You have two options to get rid of changes completely. git checkout HEAD <file(s) or path(s)> is a quick way to undo changes to your staging area and working tree. Be careful with this command, however, because it removes all changes to your working tree.

Git doesn't know about those changes since they've never been committed. There's no way to get those changes back once you run this command.

Another command at your disposal is git reset --hard. It is equally destructive to your working tree - any uncommitted changes or staged changes are lost after running it. Running git reset -hard HEAD does the same thing as git checkout HEAD. It just doesn't require a file or path to work.

You can use --soft with git reset. It resets the repository to the commit you specify and stages all of those changes. Any changes you have already staged are not affected, nor are the changes in your working tree.

Finally, you can use --mixed to reset the working tree without staging any changes. This also unstages any changes that are staged.

Reverting Commits

Sometimes we make mistakes. A commit that wasn't supposed to be shared gets pushed to a public repository, a commit has a bug that can't be fixed and needs to be undone, or maybe you just don't need that code any longer.

These cases all call for git revert. The git revert command does just what you might expect. It reverts a single commit by applying a reverse commit to the history.

Sometimes you need to revert several commits to completely undo a change. You can use -no-commit, or you can use -n to tell Git to perform the revert, but stop short of committing the change.

This lets you combine all the revert commits into one commit, which is useful if you need to revert a feature that spans several commits. Make sure that you revert commits in reverse order-the newest commit first.

Otherwise, you might confuse Git by trying to revert code that doesn't exist yet.

Answer 15

In GitKraken you can do this:

1. Right click on the commit that you want to reset, choose: Reset to this commit/Hard:

   

2. Right click on the commit again, choose: Current branch name/Push:

   

3. Click on the Force Push:

   

Obs.: You need to be careful, because all the commit history after the hard reset are lost and this action is irreversible. You need to be sure what you doing.

Answer 16

The least complicated way I have found to revert a branch to any particular commit, where you can't change the history, is to:

1. Check out the commit or branch your wish to revert from.
2. Edit .git/HEAD and change the ref to the branch you which to revert to.

Such as:

echo 'ref: refs/heads/example' > .git/HEAD

If you then do git status, you should see all the changes between the branch you're on and the one you wish to revert to.

If everything looks good, you can commit. You can also use git diff revert..example to ensure that it's the same.

Answer 17

If you want to temporarily revert changes because

• someone committed code that is breaking the build or breaking the functionality you're working on

You can search for the last working commit using git log and then run:

git rebase --onto <commitId>

When the remote branch is working again, you can

git pull --rebase

This method is better than git checkout for temporary changes, because you're not in a detached state.

Answer 18

OK, going back to a previous commit in Git is quite easy...

Revert back without keeping the changes:

git reset --hard <commit>

Revert back with keeping the changes:

git reset --soft <commit>

Explanation: using git reset, you can reset to a specific state. It's common using it with a commit hash as you see above.

But as you see the difference is using the two flags --soft and --hard, by default git reset using --soft flag, but it's a good practice always using the flag, I explain each flag:

---

--soft

The default flag as explained, not need to provide it, does not change the working tree, but it adds all changed files ready to commit, so you go back to the commit status which changes to files get unstaged.

---

--hard

Be careful with this flag. It resets the working tree and all changes to tracked files and all will be gone!

---

I also created the image below that may happen in a real life working with Git:

Answer 19

It can be done much easier with Sourcetree. Just right click commit you are looking for and chose 'Checkout' from menu.

Answer 20

First, get the string that identifies the commit in some date, doing:

git rev-list -n 1 --before="2009-07-27 13:37" origin/master

It prints the commit identifier, takes the string (for instance XXXX) and does:

git checkout XXXX

Answer 21

As your commits are pushed remotely, you need to remove them. Let me assume your branch is develop and it is pushed over origin.

You first need to remove develop from origin:

git push origin :develop (note the colon)

Then you need to get develop to the status you want, let me assume the commit hash is EFGHIJK:

git reset --hard EFGHIJK

Lastly, push develop again:

git push origin develop

Answer 22

For rollback (or to revert):

1. git revert --no-commit "commit-code-to-remove" HEAD
(e.g. git revert --no-commit d57a39d HEAD)
2. git commit
3. git push

Try the above two steps, and if you find this is what you want then git push.

If you find something wrong, do:

git revert --abort

Answer 23

There are many answers that provide removing the last commit. However, here is asked how to remove specific commits, and in this case it is to remove the last three commits, to go back to commit on November 3.

You can do this with rebase. Simply do:

git rebase -i HEAD~4

This will list your last four commits.

Now you have the option to remove commits. You do that with drop text.

• Simply hit i on your keyboard and next to commits you want to remove write drop instead of default pick

• On the keyboard, hit exit and :wq

To make sure that commits are removed, write:

git log

You will see that commits you saved as drop are removed.

To push those changes to your remote branch, write:

git push --force

Answer 24

Assuming you're talking about master and on that respective branch (that said, this could be any working branch you're concerned with):

# Reset local master branch to November 3rd commit ID
git reset --hard 0d1d7fc32e5a947fbd92ee598033d85bfc445a50

# Reset remote master branch to November 3rd commit ID
git push -f origin 0d1d7fc32e5a947fbd92ee598033d85bfc445a50:master

I found the answer from in a blog post (now no longer exists)

Note that this is Resetting and Forcing the change to the remote, so that if others on your team have already git pulled, you will cause problems for them. You are destroying the change history, which is an important reason why people use git in the first place.

Better to use revert (see other answers) than reset. If you're a one man team then it probably doesn't matter.

Answer 25

Revert to most recent commit and ignoring all local changes:

git reset --hard HEAD

Answer 26

git reflog

Choose the number of the HEAD(s) of git reflog, where you want revert to and do (for this example I choose the 12):

git reset HEAD@{12} --hard

Answer 27

This is one more way to directly reset to a recent commit

git stash
git stash clear

It directly clears all the changes that you have been making since the last commit.

PS: It has a little problem; it also deletes all you recently stored stash changes. Which I guess in most cases should not matter.

Answer 28

Here is a much simpler way to go back to a previous commit (and have it in an uncommited state, to do with it whatever you like):

git reset HEAD~1

So, no need for commit ids and so on :)

Answer 29

Yet another simplest solution; you have to change branch to do this, but afterwards you can just run:

git branch -f <<branchname>> 0d1d7fc32e5a947fbd92ee598033d85bfc445a50

Answer 30

To completely clean a coder's directory up from some accidental changes, we used:

git add -A .
git reset --hard HEAD

Just git reset --hard HEAD will get rid of modifications, but it won't get rid of "new" files. In their case they'd accidentally dragged an important folder somewhere random, and all those files were being treated as new by Git, so a reset --hard didn't fix it. By running the git add -A . beforehand, it explicitly tracked them all with git, to be wiped out by the reset.