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Guillermo Verón
Guillermo Verón

Posted on • Updated on

Git - How to fix a bad commit

Oh no, this commit is a mess! 🤦‍♂️

We all have a bad day sometimes. We can forget to include a file, leave some comments, or a merge didn't go as expected. Fortunately, Git has some commands to deal with these common situations and I want to show you some of them.

Modify commit message

Oops... You found a spelling mistake in the commit message. No worries, you can modify it:


 bash
git commit --amend -m "new message"


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Add files to last commit

You already have committed the changes but forgot to add some files. No problem, you can still add them to the commit:


 bash
git add <file_name>
git commit --amend HEAD~1


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Undo commits

If you want to undo the last commit but keep the changes:


 bash
git reset --soft HEAD~1


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If you want to undo both commit and changes: ⚠️ Be sure that you want to lose the changes:


 bash
git reset --hard HEAD~1


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Alternatively, if you want to undo all your local changes, you can reset to the origin version of the branch:


 bash
git reset --hard origin/<branch_name>


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If you want to undo the commit without altering the existing history. You can use git revert, this command undoes a commit by creating a new commit:


 bash
git revert HEAD


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If you have just resolved some conflicts, finished the merge, and push to origin. But wait, something went wrong...

The safe way to undo a merge commit that has already pushed to the remote branch is using the git revert command:


 bash
git revert -m 1 <commit_id>


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commit_id is the merge commit id that you want to revert.

Notes:

  • You can also undo any number of commits. E.g:

    • git reset HEAD~3 (going back three commits before HEAD).
    • git reset --hard <commit_id> (going back to a specific commit).
  • Use git reset if the commit is not pushed yet and you don't want to introduce a bad commit to the remote branch.

  • Use git revert to revert a merge commit that has already pushed to the remote branch.

  • Use git log to review the commit history.

  • If you prefer, you can also create a new commit with the fix.

I hope you find these commands as useful as I do and can use them. If you already knew these or think one is missing, please let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading!

Top comments (22)

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qwby profile image
Dominik Halfkann • Edited

Those are some great tips! I always loved this site called „Oh Sh*t, git“ because it has a pretty elaborative list of what can go wrong and how to fix it: ohshitgit.com/

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guivern profile image
Guillermo Verón • Edited

What a great resource! Thanks a lot for sharing it. 🚀

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markoshiva profile image
Marko Shiva

just learn it like any other language or a tool in toolchain.
Like cmake or makefile syntax... :)
Its not hard especially if you do not mind studying how it is implemented there are nice courses on the topic.

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pavelee profile image
Paweł Ciosek

thanks, really useful. It's funny that most dev use git, but not many know stuff you mentioned here.

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guivern profile image
Guillermo Verón • Edited

Thanks to you, @pavelee ! 🙏🏻️

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pichaya07 profile image
Pich Chaya

Thank you for useful tips

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guivern profile image
Guillermo Verón

Thank you 🙌

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kayodeadechinan profile image
Kayode Adechinan

great tips, thanks

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guivern profile image
Guillermo Verón

Thank you! 🙌

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khrisl33t profile image
kHRISl33t • Edited

Using reflog can also be helpful to see what you did on your local. :)

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guivern profile image
Guillermo Verón

Thanks for mentioning it! It's very useful in figuring out what happened

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alekseiberezkin profile image
Aleksei Berezkin

Thanks for not mentioning force push 😉 Worked at project where lead used it routinely, and that was very frustrating

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guivern profile image
Guillermo Verón

Thanks, @alekseiberezkin ! I can't imagine how frustrating it was. 🤦🏻‍♂️️

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jace profile image
Jace Chou

Useful tips

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guivern profile image
Guillermo Verón

Thank you, @mrzhouzh ! 🙏🏻️

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bhupesh profile image
Bhupesh Varshney 👾

Wrote this script to undo your last git f**k up (still in WIP for a stable release)
Might help someone :)

GitHub logo Bhupesh-V / ugit

🚨️ ugit helps you undo your last git command with grace. Your damage control git buddy

ugit

ugit logo

Undo your last oopsie 🙈️ in git without much effort

License: MIT Issues Twitter: bhupeshimself ugit demo gid

Why ugit

  • You did an accidental git command you didn't want to.
  • You don't want to waste your time searching on how to undo ...

What's in the box

ugit supports undoing following operations, some are a WIP. If you know of any operation that can be undone and is not in the list, make sure to send a quick PR 💛️

  • Undo git commit
  • Undo git add
  • Undo git push
  • Undo git branch -D (branch delete)
  • Undo git pull
  • Undo git reset
  • Undo git tag -d (tag delete)
  • Undo git stash apply
  • Undo git stash pop/drop/clear
  • Undo accidental file delete (Restore a deleted file after a commit)
  • Undo (Restore) a file to a previous version
  • Undo git merge
  • Undo git tag (rename a tag)
  • Undo git rebase
  • Undo git cherry-pick
  • Undo git worktree remove (recover deleted work-tree)

Installation




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guivern profile image
Guillermo Verón

Wow! Great job! 🤯️

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lelepg profile image
Letícia Pegoraro Garcez

Wow, that's super useful. I have to say I LOVE git, but I don't know as much as I'd like on how to use it properly haha

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guivern profile image
Guillermo Verón • Edited

Thanks a lot @lelepg , Git is hugeee!