GIT: How can I undo the last commit?

First, before we bring the big guns in, let's make sure you really need them. Because in case you just want to edit your last commit, you can simply use Git's amend feature. It allows you to correct the last commit's message as well as add more changes to it. If that's what you want to do, read more about amend.

Undoing the Last Commit

However, of course, there a tons of situations where you really want to undo that last commit. E.g. because you'd like to restructure it extensively - or even discard it altogether!

In these cases, the "reset" command is your best friend:

$ git reset --soft HEAD~1

Reset will rewind your current HEAD branch to the specified revision. In our example above, we'd like to return to the one before the current revision - effectively making our last commit undone.

Note the --soft flag: this makes sure that the changes in undone revisions are preserved. After running the command, you'll find the changes as uncommitted local modifications in your working copy.

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

$ git reset --hard HEAD~1

TIP

Undoing Multiple Commits

The same technique allows you to return to any previous revision:

$ git reset --hard 0ad5a7a6

Always keep in mind, however, that using the reset command undoes all commits that came after the one you returned to: