How to remove selected commit log entries from a Git repository while keeping their changes

Question

I would like to remove selected commit log entries from a linear commit tree  so that the entries do not show in the commit log   My commit tree looks something like   R--A--B--C--D--E--HEAD   I would like to remove the B and C entries so that they do not show in the commit log  but changes from A to D should be preserved  Maybe by introducing a single commit  so that B and C become BC and the tree looks like   R--A--BC--D--E--HEAD   Or  ideally  after A comes D directly  D  representing changes from A to B  B to C and C to D   R--A--D --E--HEAD   Is this possible  if yes  how   This is a fairly new project so has no branches as of now  hence no merges as well

User · Answer

detach head and move to D commit git checkout  lt SHA1-for-D gt     move HEAD to A  but leave the index and working tree as for D git reset --soft  lt SHA1-for-A gt     Redo the D commit re-using the commit message  but now on top of A git commit -C  lt SHA1-for-D gt     Re-apply everything from the old D onwards onto this new place  git rebase --onto HEAD  lt SHA1-for-D gt  master

User · Answer

git-rebase 1  does exactly that      git rebase -i HEAD 5   git awsome-ness  git rebase --interactive  contains an example    Don t use git-rebase on public  remote  commits  Make sure your working directory is clean  commit or stash your current changes   Run the above command  It launches your  EDITOR  Replace pick before C and D by squash  It will meld C and D into B  If you want to delete a commit then just delete its line    If you are lost  type     git rebase --abort

User · Answer

You can non-interactively remove B and C in your example with   git rebase --onto HEAD 5 HEAD 3 HEAD   or symbolically   git rebase --onto A C HEAD   Note that the changes in B and C will not be in D  they will be gone

User · Answer

git-rebase 1  does exactly that      git rebase -i HEAD 5   git awsome-ness  git rebase --interactive  contains an example    Don t use git-rebase on public  remote  commits  Make sure your working directory is clean  commit or stash your current changes   Run the above command  It launches your  EDITOR  Replace pick before C and D by squash  It will meld C and D into B  If you want to delete a commit then just delete its line    If you are lost  type     git rebase --abort

User · Answer

Just collected all people s answers  m new to git plz use it for reference only   git rebase to delete any commits  git log  -first check from which commit you want to rebase   git rebase -i HEAD 1  -Here i want to rebase on the second last commit- commit count starts from  1   -this will open the command line editor  called vim editor i guess    Then the screen will look something like this      pick 0c2236d Added new line       Rebase 2a1cd65  0c2236d onto 2a1cd65  1 command              Commands       p  pick   use commit      r  reword   use commit  but edit the commit message      e  edit   use commit  but stop for amending      s  squash   use commit  but meld into previous commit      f  fixup   like  squash   but discard this commit s log message      x  exec   run command  the rest of the line  using shell      d  drop   remove commit             These lines can be re-ordered  they are executed from top to bottom              If you remove a line here THAT COMMIT WILL BE LOST              However  if you remove everything  the rebase will be aborted              Note that empty commits are commented out                                                                                                                                                                                                          Here change the first line as per your need  using the commands listed above i e   drop  to remove commit etc   Once done the editing press   x  to save and exit editor this is for vim editor only   And then   git push  If its showing problem then you need to forcefully push the changes to remote ITS VERY CRITICAL   dont force push if you are working in team   git push -f origin

User · Answer

Just collected all people s answers  m new to git plz use it for reference only   git rebase to delete any commits  git log  -first check from which commit you want to rebase   git rebase -i HEAD 1  -Here i want to rebase on the second last commit- commit count starts from  1   -this will open the command line editor  called vim editor i guess    Then the screen will look something like this      pick 0c2236d Added new line       Rebase 2a1cd65  0c2236d onto 2a1cd65  1 command              Commands       p  pick   use commit      r  reword   use commit  but edit the commit message      e  edit   use commit  but stop for amending      s  squash   use commit  but meld into previous commit      f  fixup   like  squash   but discard this commit s log message      x  exec   run command  the rest of the line  using shell      d  drop   remove commit             These lines can be re-ordered  they are executed from top to bottom              If you remove a line here THAT COMMIT WILL BE LOST              However  if you remove everything  the rebase will be aborted              Note that empty commits are commented out                                                                                                                                                                                                          Here change the first line as per your need  using the commands listed above i e   drop  to remove commit etc   Once done the editing press   x  to save and exit editor this is for vim editor only   And then   git push  If its showing problem then you need to forcefully push the changes to remote ITS VERY CRITICAL   dont force push if you are working in team   git push -f origin

User · Answer

To expand on J F  Sebastian s answer   You can use git-rebase to easily make all kinds of changes to your commit history   After running git rebase --interactive you get the following in your  EDITOR   pick 366eca1 This has a huge file pick d975b30 delete foo pick 121802a delete bar   Rebase 57d0b28  121802a onto 57d0b28     Commands     p  pick   use commit    r  reword   use commit  but edit the commit message    e  edit   use commit  but stop for amending    s  squash   use commit  but meld into previous commit   You can move lines to change the order of commits and delete lines to remove that commit  Or you can add a command to combine  squash  two commits into a single commit  previous commit is the above commit   edit commits  what was changed   or reword commit messages   I think pick just means that you want to leave that commit alone    Example is from here

User · Answer

Here is a way to remove a specific commit id knowing only the commit id you would like to remove   git rebase --onto commit-id  commit-id   Note that this actually removes the change that was introduced by the commit

User · Answer

You can non-interactively remove B and C in your example with   git rebase --onto HEAD 5 HEAD 3 HEAD   or symbolically   git rebase --onto A C HEAD   Note that the changes in B and C will not be in D  they will be gone

User · Answer

detach head and move to D commit git checkout  lt SHA1-for-D gt     move HEAD to A  but leave the index and working tree as for D git reset --soft  lt SHA1-for-A gt     Redo the D commit re-using the commit message  but now on top of A git commit -C  lt SHA1-for-D gt     Re-apply everything from the old D onwards onto this new place  git rebase --onto HEAD  lt SHA1-for-D gt  master

User · Answer

To expand on J F  Sebastian s answer   You can use git-rebase to easily make all kinds of changes to your commit history   After running git rebase --interactive you get the following in your  EDITOR   pick 366eca1 This has a huge file pick d975b30 delete foo pick 121802a delete bar   Rebase 57d0b28  121802a onto 57d0b28     Commands     p  pick   use commit    r  reword   use commit  but edit the commit message    e  edit   use commit  but stop for amending    s  squash   use commit  but meld into previous commit   You can move lines to change the order of commits and delete lines to remove that commit  Or you can add a command to combine  squash  two commits into a single commit  previous commit is the above commit   edit commits  what was changed   or reword commit messages   I think pick just means that you want to leave that commit alone    Example is from here

User · Answer

You can use git cherry-pick for this   cherry-pick  will apply a commit onto the branch your on now   then do   git rebase --hard  lt SHA1 of A gt    then apply the D and E commits   git cherry-pick  lt SHA1 of D gt  git cherry-pick  lt SHA1 of E gt    This will skip out the B and C commit  Having said that it might be impossible to apply the D commit to the branch without B  so YMMV

User · Answer

You can use git cherry-pick for this   cherry-pick  will apply a commit onto the branch your on now   then do   git rebase --hard  lt SHA1 of A gt    then apply the D and E commits   git cherry-pick  lt SHA1 of D gt  git cherry-pick  lt SHA1 of E gt    This will skip out the B and C commit  Having said that it might be impossible to apply the D commit to the branch without B  so YMMV

User · Answer

One more way   git rebase -i ad0389efc1a79b1f9c4dd6061dca6edc1d5bb78a  C s hash  and git push origin master  -f   pick the hash that you want to use it as a base  and the above command should make it interactive so you can squash all the top messages   you need to leave the oldest

User · Answer

I find this process much safer and easier to understand by creating another branch from the SHA1 of A and cherry-picking the desired changes so I can make sure I m satisfied with how this new branch looks  After that  it is easy to remove the old branch and rename the new one   git checkout  lt SHA1 of A gt  git log  verify looks good git checkout -b rework git cherry-pick  lt SHA1 of D gt       git log  verify looks good git branch -D  lt oldbranch gt  git branch -m rework  lt oldbranch gt

User · Answer

git-rebase 1  does exactly that      git rebase -i HEAD 5   git awsome-ness  git rebase --interactive  contains an example    Don t use git-rebase on public  remote  commits  Make sure your working directory is clean  commit or stash your current changes   Run the above command  It launches your  EDITOR  Replace pick before C and D by squash  It will meld C and D into B  If you want to delete a commit then just delete its line    If you are lost  type     git rebase --abort

User · Answer

You can use git cherry-pick for this   cherry-pick  will apply a commit onto the branch your on now   then do   git rebase --hard  lt SHA1 of A gt    then apply the D and E commits   git cherry-pick  lt SHA1 of D gt  git cherry-pick  lt SHA1 of E gt    This will skip out the B and C commit  Having said that it might be impossible to apply the D commit to the branch without B  so YMMV

User · Answer

detach head and move to D commit git checkout  lt SHA1-for-D gt     move HEAD to A  but leave the index and working tree as for D git reset --soft  lt SHA1-for-A gt     Redo the D commit re-using the commit message  but now on top of A git commit -C  lt SHA1-for-D gt     Re-apply everything from the old D onwards onto this new place  git rebase --onto HEAD  lt SHA1-for-D gt  master

User · Answer

Here is a way to remove a specific commit id knowing only the commit id you would like to remove   git rebase --onto commit-id  commit-id   Note that this actually removes the change that was introduced by the commit

User · Answer

I find this process much safer and easier to understand by creating another branch from the SHA1 of A and cherry-picking the desired changes so I can make sure I m satisfied with how this new branch looks  After that  it is easy to remove the old branch and rename the new one   git checkout  lt SHA1 of A gt  git log  verify looks good git checkout -b rework git cherry-pick  lt SHA1 of D gt       git log  verify looks good git branch -D  lt oldbranch gt  git branch -m rework  lt oldbranch gt

User · Answer

One more way   git rebase -i ad0389efc1a79b1f9c4dd6061dca6edc1d5bb78a  C s hash  and git push origin master  -f   pick the hash that you want to use it as a base  and the above command should make it interactive so you can squash all the top messages   you need to leave the oldest

User · Answer

git-rebase 1  does exactly that      git rebase -i HEAD 5   git awsome-ness  git rebase --interactive  contains an example    Don t use git-rebase on public  remote  commits  Make sure your working directory is clean  commit or stash your current changes   Run the above command  It launches your  EDITOR  Replace pick before C and D by squash  It will meld C and D into B  If you want to delete a commit then just delete its line    If you are lost  type     git rebase --abort

User · Answer

detach head and move to D commit git checkout  lt SHA1-for-D gt     move HEAD to A  but leave the index and working tree as for D git reset --soft  lt SHA1-for-A gt     Redo the D commit re-using the commit message  but now on top of A git commit -C  lt SHA1-for-D gt     Re-apply everything from the old D onwards onto this new place  git rebase --onto HEAD  lt SHA1-for-D gt  master

User · Answer

You can use git cherry-pick for this   cherry-pick  will apply a commit onto the branch your on now   then do   git rebase --hard  lt SHA1 of A gt    then apply the D and E commits   git cherry-pick  lt SHA1 of D gt  git cherry-pick  lt SHA1 of E gt    This will skip out the B and C commit  Having said that it might be impossible to apply the D commit to the branch without B  so YMMV

[git] How to remove selected commit log entries from a Git repository while keeping their changes?

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