Resetting History: git reset

Resetting History: git reset

Git reset moves the current branch pointer backward to an earlier commit, effectively discarding everything after that point from the branch history. It is powerful but potentially destructive — use it only on local, unpushed commits.

The Three Modes of Reset

--soft: Moves the branch pointer back but keeps all changes staged. Your work is preserved and ready to be re-committed.

git reset --soft HEAD~1

--mixed (default): Moves the branch pointer back and unstages changes, but keeps them in the working directory.

git reset HEAD~1

--hard: Moves the branch pointer back and discards all changes in both the staging area and working directory. This cannot be easily undone.

git reset --hard HEAD~1

Practical Use Cases

Use --soft to combine several commits into one by resetting back and re-committing everything together. Use --mixed to unstage files without losing your changes. Use --hard with extreme caution — only when you truly want to discard all recent work.

Recovering from Hard Reset

Even after a hard reset, commits are not immediately deleted. Git keeps them for 30 days in the reflog:

git reflog
git reset --hard abc1234

Find the lost commit's hash in the reflog and reset to it.