What s the difference between git reset and git checkout

Question

I ve always thought of git reset and git checkout as the same  in the sense that both bring the project back to a specific commit  However  I feel they can t be exactly the same  as that would be redundant  What is the actual difference between the two  I m a bit confused  as the svn only has svn co to revert the commit    ADDED  VonC and Charles explained the differences between git reset and git checkout really well  My current understanding is that git reset reverts all of the changes back to a specific commit  whereas git checkout more or less prepares for a branch  I found the following two diagrams quite useful in coming to this understanding      ADDED 3  From http   think-like-a-git net sections rebase-from-the-ground-up using-git-cherry-pick-to-simulate-git-rebase html  checkout and reset can emulate the rebase      git checkout bar  git reset --hard newbar  git branch -d newbar

User · Answer

One simple use case when reverting change  1  Use reset if you want to undo staging of a modified file  2  Use checkout if you want to discard changes to unstaged file s

User · Answer

git reset is specifically about updating the index  moving the HEAD  git checkout is about updating the working tree  to the index or the specified tree   It will update the HEAD only if you checkout a branch  if not  you end up with a detached HEAD    actually  with Git 2 23 Q3 2019  this will be git restore  not necessarily git checkout     By comparison  since svn has no index  only a working tree  svn checkout will copy a given revision on a separate directory  The closer equivalent for git checkout would    svn update  if you are in the same branch  meaning the same SVN URL  svn switch  if you checkout for instance the same branch  but from another SVN repo URL    All those three working tree modifications  svn checkout  update  switch  have only one command in git  git checkout  But since git has also the notion of index  that  staging area  between the repo and the working tree   you also have git reset     Thinkeye mentions in the comments the article  Reset Demystified        For instance  if we have two branches   master  and  develop  pointing at different commits  and we re currently on  develop   so HEAD points to it  and we run git reset master   develop  itself will now point to the same commit that  master  does       On the other hand  if we instead run git checkout master   develop  will not move  HEAD itself will  HEAD will now point to  master         So  in both cases we re moving HEAD to point to commit A  but how we do so is very different  reset will move the branch HEAD points to  checkout moves HEAD itself to point to another branch      On those points  though   LarsH adds in the comments      The first paragraph of this answer  though  is misleading   git checkout     will update the HEAD only if you checkout a branch  if not  you end up with a detached HEAD      Not true  git checkout will update the HEAD even if you checkout a commit that s not a branch  and yes  you end up with a detached HEAD  but it still got updated     git checkout a839e8f updates HEAD to point to commit a839e8f     De Novo concurs in the comments       LarsH is correct    The second bullet has a misconception about what HEAD is in will update the HEAD only if you checkout a branch    HEAD goes wherever you are  like a shadow    Checking out some non-branch ref  e g   a tag   or a commit directly  will move HEAD  Detached head doesn t mean you ve detached from the HEAD  it means the head is detached from a branch ref  which you can see from  e g   git log --pretty format   d  -1            Attached head states will start with  HEAD - gt      detached will still show  HEAD  but will not have an arrow to a branch ref

User · Answer

The key difference in a nutshell is that reset moves the current branch reference  while checkout does not  it moves HEAD    As the Pro Git book explains under Reset Demystified      The first thing reset will do is move what HEAD points to  This isn   t   the same as changing HEAD itself  which is what checkout does   reset   moves the branch that HEAD is pointing to  This means if HEAD is set   to the master branch  i e  you   re currently on the master branch     running git reset 9e5e6a4 will start by making master point to   9e5e6a4   emphasis added    See also VonC s answer for a very helpful text and diagram excerpt from the same article  which I won t duplicate here   Of course there are a lot more details about what effects checkout and reset can have on the index and the working tree  depending on what parameters are used  There can be lots of similarities and differences between the two commands  But as I see it  the most crucial difference is whether they move the tip of the current branch

User · Answer

In their simplest form  reset resets the index without touching the working tree  while checkout changes the working tree without touching the index   Resets the index to match HEAD  working tree left alone   git reset   Conceptually  this checks out the index into the working tree  To get it to actually do anything you would have to use -f to force it to overwrite any local changes  This is a safety feature to make sure that the  no argument  form isn t destructive   git checkout   Once you start adding parameters it is true that there is some overlap   checkout is usually used with a branch  tag or commit  In this case it will reset HEAD and the index to the given commit as well as performing the checkout of the index into the working tree   Also  if you supply --hard to reset you can ask reset to overwrite the working tree as well as resetting the index   If you current have a branch checked out out there is a crucial different between reset and checkout when you supply an alternative branch or commit  reset will change the current branch to point at the selected commit whereas checkout will leave the current branch alone but will checkout the supplied branch or commit instead   Other forms of reset and commit involve supplying paths   If you supply paths to reset you cannot supply --hard and reset will only change the index version of the supplied paths to the version in the supplied commit  or HEAD if you don t specify a commit    If you supply paths to checkout  like reset it will update the index version of the supplied paths to match the supplied commit  or HEAD  but it will always checkout the index version of the supplied paths into the working tree

User · Answer

brief mnemonics   git reset HEAD                         index   HEAD git checkout               file tree   index git reset --hard HEAD      file tree   index   HEAD

User · Answer

The two commands  reset and checkout  are completely different    checkout X IS NOT reset --hard X  If X is a branch name   checkout X will change the current branch  while reset --hard X will not

[git] What's the difference between "git reset" and "git checkout"?

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