Git Tips

Git-Tips

# Delete previous commit (locally) but not eliminate the changes
git reset --soft HEAD~1

# Delete previous commit (locally) and the modified files
git reset --hard HEAD~1

# Delete a commit already pushed
git revert HEAD

# Pull a branch from repository
git checkout -b < new_branch > origin/< new_branch >

# Delete branch locally
git branch -D <branchName>

# Delete a remote branch
git push origin --delete <branchName>

# See a previous version of a fie
git show <previous commit hash>:<path_to_the_file>

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# Revert

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, i.e. 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
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
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. 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.

# This will create three separate revert commits:
git revert 0766c053 25eee4ca a867b4af

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

# 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 .
# and then commit
git commit    # be sure and write a good message describing what you just did
The git-revert manpage actually covers a lot of this in its description. Another useful link is this git-scm.com blog post discussing git-revert.