Various ways to remove local Git changes

Question

I just cloned a git repository and checked out a branch  I worked on it  and then decided to remove all my local changes  as I wanted the original copy   In short  I had to do the following two commands to remove my local changes  git checkout    git clean -f   My question is    1  Is this the correct approach in getting rid of local changes  or else please let me know the correct approach    2  when do we use git reset --hard as i am able to reset even without this command  Thanks   Solution   Major Edit s   03 26      Replaced many of vague terms with git specific terminology   tracked untracked staged unstaged   There could be only three categories of files when we make local changes      Type 1  Staged Tracked files      Type 2  Unstaged Tracked files      Type 3  Unstaged UnTracked files a k a UnTracked files    Staged - Those that are moved to staging area  Added to index Tracked - modified files UnTracked - new files  Always unstaged  If staged  that means they are tracked    What each commands do    git checkout   - Removes Unstaged Tracked files ONLY  Type 2  git clean -f - Removes Unstaged UnTracked files ONLY  Type 3  git reset --hard - Removes Staged Tracked and UnStaged Tracked files ONLY Type 1  Type 2  git stash -u - Removes all changes  Type 1  Type 2  Type 3    Conclusion   It s clear that we can use either    1  combination of  git clean -f  and  git reset --hard     OR   2   git stash -u    to achieve the desired result   Note  Stashing  as the word means  Store  something  safely and secretly in a specified place   This can always be retrieved using git stash pop  So choosing between the above two options is developer s call   Thank you Christoph and Frederik Sch  ning   Edit  03 27  I thought it s worth putting the  beware  note to git clean -f  git clean -f  There is no going back  Use -n or --dry-run to preview the damage you ll do   If you want to also remove directories  run git clean -f -d  If you just want to remove ignored files  run git clean -f -X  If you want to remove ignored as well as non-ignored files  run git clean -f -x  reference   more on git clean   How to remove local  untracked  files from the current Git working tree   Edit  05 20 15  Discarding all local commits on this branch  Removing local commits   In order to discard all local commits on this branch  to make the local branch identical  to the  upstream  of this branch  simply run git reset --hard   u   Reference  http   sethrobertson github io GitFixUm fixup html  or do git reset --hard origin master  if local branch is master   Note  06 12 2015 This is not a duplicate of the other SO question that s marked as duplicate  This question address how to remove local GIT changes  remove a file added  remove changes added to existing file etc and the various approaches  Where in the other SO thread only address how to remove local commit  If you added a file  and you want to remove that alone  then the other SO thread doesn t discuss about it  Hence this is not a duplicate of the other one   Edit  06 23 15  How to revert a commit already pushed to a remote repository     git revert ab12cd15   Edit  09 01 2015  Delete a previous commit from local branch and remote branch  Case  You just commited a change to your local branch and immediately pushed to the remote branch  Suddenly realized   Oh no  I dont need this change  Now do what   git reset --hard HEAD 1      for deleting that commit from local branch   git push origin HEAD --force  both the commands must be executed  For deleting from remote branch   Whats the branch   Its the currently checked out branch   Edit 09 08 2015 - Remove local git merge   I am on master branch and merged master branch with a newly working branch phase2    git status   On branch master    git merge phase2    git status   On branch master   Your branch is ahead of  origin master  by 8 commits    Q  How to get rid of this merge  Tried git reset --hard   and git clean -d -f Both didn t work   The only thing that worked are any of the below ones     git reset --hard origin master   or    git reset --hard HEAD 8   or    git reset --hard 9a88396f51e2a068bb7   sha commit code - this is the one that was present before all your merge commits happened

User · Answer

I think git has one thing that isn t clearly documented  I think it was actually neglected    git checkout    Man  you saved my day  I always have things I want to try using the modified code  But the things sometimes end up messing the modified code  add new untracked files etc  So what I want to do is  stage what I want  do the messy stuff  then cleanup quickly and commit if I m happy   There s git clean -fd works well for untracked files    Then git reset simply removes staged  but git checkout is kinda too cumbersome  Specifying file one by one or using directories isn t always ideal  Sometimes the changed files I want to get rid of are within directories I want to keep  I wished for this one command that just removes unstaged changes and here you re  Thanks   But I think they should just have git checkout without any options  remove all unstaged changes and not touch the the staged  It s kinda modular and intuitive  More like what git reset does  git clean should also do the same

User · Answer

Option 1  Discard tracked and untracked file changes Discard changes made to both staged and unstaged files    git reset --hard  HEAD   Then discard  or remove  untracked files altogether    git clean  -f   Option 2  Stash You can first stash your changes   git stash  And then either drop or pop it depending on what you want to do  See https   git-scm com docs git-stash  synopsis  Option 3  Manually restore files to original state First we switch to the target branch   git checkout  lt branch-name gt   List all files that have changes   git status  Restore each file to its original state manually   git restore  lt file-path gt

User · Answer

It all depends on exactly what you are trying to undo revert  Start out by reading the post in Ube s link  But to attempt an answer   Hard reset  git reset --hard  HEAD    completely remove all staged and unstaged changes to tracked files   I find myself often using hard resetting  when I m like  just undo everything like if I had done a complete re-clone from the remote   In your case  where you just want your repo pristine  this would work   Clean  git clean  -f    Remove files that are not tracked   For removing temporary files  but keep staged and unstaged changes to already tracked files  Most times  I would probably end up making an ignore-rule instead of repeatedly cleaning - e g  for the bin obj folders in a C  project  which you would usually want to exclude from your repo to save space  or something like that   The -f  force  option will also remove files  that are not tracked and are also being ignored by git though ignore-rule  In the case above  with an ignore-rule to never track the bin obj folders  even though these folders are being ignored by git  using the force-option will remove them from your file system  I ve sporadically seen a use for this  e g  when scripting deployment  and you want to clean your code before deploying  zipping or whatever   Git clean will not touch files  that are already being tracked   Checkout  dot   git checkout     I had actually never seen this notation before reading your post  I m having a hard time finding documentation for this  maybe someone can help   but from playing around a bit  it looks like it means    undo all changes in my working tree    I e  undo unstaged changes in tracked files  It apparently doesn t touch staged changes and leaves untracked files alone   Stashing  Some answers mention stashing  As the wording implies  you would probably use stashing when you are in the middle of something  not ready for a commit   and you have to temporarily switch branches or somehow work on another state of your code  later to return to your  messy desk   I don t see this applies to your question  but it s definitely handy   To sum up  Generally  if you are confident you have committed and maybe pushed to a remote important changes  if you are just playing around or the like  using git reset --hard HEAD followed by git clean -f will definitively cleanse your code to the state  it would be in  had it just been cloned and checked out from a branch  It s really important to emphasize  that the resetting will also remove staged  but uncommitted changes  It will wipe everything that has not been committed  except untracked files  in which case  use clean    All the other commands are there to facilitate more complex scenarios  where a granularity of  undoing stuff  is needed     I feel  your question  1 is covered  but lastly  to conclude on  2  the reason you never found the need to use git reset --hard was that you had never staged anything  Had you staged a change  neither git checkout   nor git clean -f would have reverted that   Hope this covers

User · Answer

As with everything in git there are multiple ways of doing it  The two commands you used are one way of doing it  Another thing you could have done is simply stash them with git stash -u  The -u makes sure that newly added files  untracked  are also included   The handy thing about git stash -u is that   it is probably the simplest  only   single command to accomplish your goal if you change your mind afterwards you get all your work back with git stash pop  it s like deleting an email in gmail where you can just undo if you change your mind afterwards    As of your other question git reset --hard won t remove the untracked files so you would still need the git clean -f  But a git stash -u might be the most convenient

User · Answer

Reason for adding an answer at this moment    So far I was adding the conclusion and    answers    to my initial question itself  making the question very lengthy  hence moving to separate answer   I have also added more frequently used git commands that helps me on git  to help someone else too   Basically to clean all local commits   git reset --hard and    git clean -d -f    First step before you do any commits is to configure your username and email that appears along with your commit    Sets the name you want attached to your commit transactions    git config --global user name   name      Sets the email you want atached to your commit transactions    git config --global user email   email address      List the global config    git config --list    List the remote URL    git remote show origin    check status  git status    List all local and remote branches  git branch -a    create a new local branch and start working on this branch  git checkout -b  branchname     or  it can be done as a two step process  create branch  git branch branchname work on this branch  git checkout branchname   commit local changes  two step process - Add the file to the index  that means adding to the staging area  Then commit the files that are present in this staging area   git add  lt path to file gt   git commit -m  commit message     checkout some other local branch  git checkout  local branch name     remove all changes in local branch  Suppose you made some changes in local branch like adding new file or modifying existing file  or making a local commit  but no longer need that  git clean -d -f and git reset --hard   clean all local changes made to the local branch except if local commit   git stash -u  also removes all changes   Note  It s clear that we can use either  1  combination of git clean    d    f and git reset --hard  OR  2  git stash -u to achieve the desired result   Note 1  Stashing  as the word means  Store  something  safely and secretly in a specified place   This can always be retreived using git stash pop  So choosing between the above two options is developer s call   Note 2  git reset --hard will delete working directory changes  Be sure to stash any local changes you want to keep before running this command     Switch to the master branch and make sure you are up to date   git checkout master   git fetch     this may be necessary  depending on your git config  to receive updates on origin master    git pull     Merge the feature branch into the master branch   git merge feature branch     Reset the master branch to origin s state   git reset origin master    Accidentally deleted a file from local   how to retrieve it back  Do a git status to get the complete filepath of the deleted resource  git checkout branchname  lt file path name gt    that s it    Merge master branch with someotherbranch  git checkout master git merge someotherbranchname    rename local branch  git branch -m old-branch-name new-branch-name    delete local branch   git branch -D branch-name    delete remote branch   git push origin --delete branchname   or  git push origin  branch-name    revert a commit already pushed to a remote repository  git revert hgytyz4567    branch from a previous commit using GIT  git branch branchname  lt sha1-of-commit gt     Change commit message of the most recent commit that s already been pushed to remote  git commit --amend -m  new commit message  git push --force origin  lt branch-name gt      Discarding all local commits on this branch  Removing local commits   In order to discard all local commits on this branch  to make the local branch identical to the  upstream  of this branch  simply run   git reset --hard   u    Reference  http   sethrobertson github io GitFixUm fixup html or do git reset --hard origin master  if local branch is master     Revert  a commit already pushed to a remote repository     git revert ab12cd15    Delete a previous commit from local branch and remote branch  Use-Case  You just commited a change to your local branch and immediately pushed to the remote branch  Suddenly realized   Oh no  I dont need this change  Now do what   git reset --hard HEAD 1  for deleting that commit from local branch  1 denotes the ONE commit you made   git push origin HEAD --force  both the commands must be executed  For deleting from remote branch   Currently checked out branch will be referred as the branch where you are making this operation    Delete some of recent commits from local and remote repo and preserve to the commit that you want    a kind of reverting commits from local and remote   Let s assume you have 3 commits that you ve pushed to remote branch named  develop   commitid-1 done at 9am commitid-2 done at 10am commitid-3 done at 11am     latest commit  HEAD is current here    To revert to old commit   to change the state of branch   git log --oneline --decorate --graph    to see all your commitids  git clean -d -f    clean any local changes  git reset --hard commitid-1     locally reverting to this commitid  git push -u origin  develop    push this state to remote    to do force push    Remove local git merge  Case  I am on master branch and merged master branch with a newly working branch phase2    git status   On branch master    git merge phase2       git status  On branch master  Your branch is ahead of  origin master  by 8 commits   Q  How to get rid of this local git merge  Tried git reset --hard and git clean -d -f Both didn t work  The only thing that worked are any of the below ones     git reset --hard origin master  or    git reset --hard HEAD 8  or    git reset --hard 9a88396f51e2a068bb7  sha commit code - this is the one that was present before all your merge commits happened    create gitignore file  touch  gitignore    create the file in mac or unix users  sample  gitignore contents    project   py  settings   Reference link to GIT cheat sheet  https   services github com on-demand downloads github-git-cheat-sheet pdf

User · Answer

Use   git checkout --  lt file gt    To discard the changes in the working directory

User · Answer

1  When you don t want to keep your local changes at all  git reset --hard  This command will completely remove all the local changes from your local repository  This is the best way to avoid conflicts during pull command  only if you don t want to keep your local changes at all  2  When you want to keep your local changes If you want to pull the new changes from remote and want to ignore the local changes during this pull then  git stash  It will stash all the local changes  now you can pull the remote changes  git pull  Now  you can bring back your local changes by  git stash pop

User · Answer

For discard all i like to stash and drop that stash  it s the fastest way to discard all  especially if you work between multiple repos   This will stash all changes in  0  key and instantly drop it from  0   git stash  amp  amp  git stash drop

User · Answer

First of all check is your important change saved or not by        git status   than try        git reset --hard      it will reset your branch to default   but if you need just undo        edit                                      1       git add frotz c   filfre c   mailx                                     2       git reset    3    git pull git   info example com  nitfol     Read more    https   git-scm com docs git-reset

User · Answer

The best way is checking out the changes   Changing the file pom xml in a project named project-name you can do it   git status    modified    project-name pom xml  git checkout project-name pom xml git checkout master    Checking out files  100   491 491   done    Branch master set up to track remote branch master from origin    Switched to a new branch  master

[git] Various ways to remove local Git changes

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