undo your last git commit

Soft resetCopy

You can preserve the changes you want to undo using the soft flag. You'll find the changes as uncommitted local modifications in your working copy.

If you don't want to keep these changes, use the --hard flag. Be sure to do this when you're sure you don't need these changes anymore.

With a soft reset, you can remove the files you didn't want to commit and recommit with the same message:

Hard resetCopy

The HEAD~1 argument tells git to move the HEAD pointer to the commit before the current commit. Essentially, it's a shorthand for "the commit before the commit that HEAD currently points to".

The difference between the two commands is in how they handle changes in the working directory and the index (also known as the "staging area").

git reset --soft HEAD~1 Will move the HEAD pointer to the previous commit, leaving the changes in the working directory and the index intact. This means that any changes you have made to your code since the last commit will still be there, you can continue to make additional changes or create a new commit to include them.

git reset --hard HEAD~1 Will also move the HEAD pointer to the previous commit and discard any changes in the working directory and the index. This means any changes made to your code since the last commit will be lost, and your working directory will be the same as in the previous commit.

It's essential to be very careful when using git reset --hard because it discards changes permanently, and you can't get it back unless you have a backup or version.

So, git reset --soft allows you to undo a commit but keep all the changes while git reset --hard will undo the commit and discard all the changes.

Oops, I didn't mean toCopy

If you reset a bit too much, you can redo the last step using the following:

This command also uses the git reset command to move the current branch's HEAD (the pointer that refers to the current commit) to a different commit.

HEAD@{1} is a notation that refers to the commit to which the HEAD pointer was previously pointing. The HEAD@{n} notation is known as a "HEAD reflog", allowing you to refer to commits that the HEAD pointer has previously pointed to, even if they are no longer reachable by any branch or tag.

For example, HEAD@{1} refers to the commit that HEAD was pointing to before the current commit and HEAD@{2} would refer to the commit that HEAD was pointing to two commits ago.

When you run the command, git reset HEAD@{1} it moves the current branch's HEAD pointer to the commit it previously pointed to before the current commit. Like git reset --hard HEAD~1 it also discards any changes in the working directory and index. You won't lose data permanently, though, as the changes are being moved to the reflog and can be retrieved.