How to Remove All Changes in Git?

When working in Git, there are times when you may want to remove all changes and revert your workspace back to a previous state. Whether you’re undoing a mistake or resetting to a fresh state, Git offers a few powerful commands to discard changes from tracked, staged, and committed files. In this blog, we’ll cover how to remove changes at each stage, from unstaged changes to committed history, helping you regain control of your codebase.

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Understanding the Types of Changes in Git

Before diving into the commands, let’s review the types of changes you might want to remove:

1. Unstaged Changes: Modifications to tracked files that have not been staged.
2. Staged Changes: Changes that have been added to the staging area with git add but haven’t yet been committed.
3. Committed Changes: Changes that have been committed to the local Git history but have not been pushed to a remote repository.

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Removing Unstaged Changes

Unstaged changes are local modifications to tracked files that haven’t yet been added to the staging area. You can discard these changes by using git restore or git checkout.

Using git restore (recommended)

The git restore command, introduced in Git 2.23, is a safer and more targeted way to discard unstaged changes.

git restore <file>

To discard all unstaged changes across the entire project, use:

git restore .

Using git checkout (older method)

Alternatively, you can use git checkout to discard unstaged changes:

git checkout -- <file>

To discard all unstaged changes:

git checkout -- .

Note: Both of these commands only affect unstaged changes and will not remove new files that haven’t been tracked.

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Removing Staged Changes

Staged changes are modifications that have been added to the staging area. To remove them from the staging area without affecting the actual files, you can use the git reset command.

Using git reset

To unstage all changes:

git reset

If you want to unstage specific files, list the files after git reset:

git reset <file1> <file2>

Note: git reset moves changes from the staging area back to unstaged, so they’ll still appear as modified in your working directory. You’ll need to discard unstaged changes using git restore or git checkout if you want to completely remove them.

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Removing Committed Changes

To discard changes that have already been committed, there are several options depending on whether you want to:

1. Keep the changes locally without committing.
2. Remove the changes entirely.
3. Revert to a specific previous commit.

1. Resetting the Last Commit Locally (git reset)

If you want to remove the most recent commit from the local history but keep the changes in your working directory, use:

git reset --soft HEAD~1

To remove the last commit and move the changes back to the unstaged area, use:

git reset HEAD~1

To completely discard the last commit and delete its changes from the working directory, use:

git reset --hard HEAD~1

2. Discarding Multiple Commits

To remove multiple commits from the history, specify the commit you want to reset to:

git reset --hard <commit-hash>

Replace <commit-hash> with the hash of the commit you want to reset to. This action deletes all commits after the specified commit and removes their changes from your working directory.

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Removing Changes in Untracked Files

Untracked files are files that haven’t been added to Git’s tracking system, often including new or temporary files. To remove untracked files, you can use git clean.

Using git clean to Remove Untracked Files

To see which files would be removed without actually deleting them, run:

git clean -n

If you’re sure you want to delete all untracked files, use:

git clean -f

To remove untracked directories as well, add the -d option:

git clean -fd

Warning: git clean deletes files permanently, so double-check before running it.

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Undoing Changes Pushed to a Remote Repository

If you’ve already pushed changes to a remote repository, it becomes more complex to remove them, especially if others have pulled your changes. Here are some options:

1. Reverting Commits

To create a new commit that undoes specific changes without altering the commit history, use git revert. This is particularly helpful when collaborating, as it preserves the commit history while nullifying changes.

git revert <commit-hash>

2. Forcing a Reset (use caution)

If you need to completely remove commits from the remote history and are aware of the consequences, you can perform a force push:

1. First, reset the branch locally:

   git reset --hard <commit-hash>

2. Then, force push to overwrite the remote history:

   git push origin <branch-name> --force

Caution: This will rewrite the remote history and can cause issues for collaborators, so it should be used carefully and communicated to your team.

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Summary of Commands

Action	Command
Discard unstaged changes	git restore . or git checkout -- .
Unstage changes	git reset
Discard last commit locally	git reset --hard HEAD~1
Revert to specific commit	git reset --hard <commit-hash>
Remove untracked files	git clean -f
Remove untracked directories	git clean -fd
Revert pushed commit	git revert <commit-hash>
Force-push reset to remote	git push origin <branch-name> --force

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Best Practices for Managing Changes in Git

1. Commit Often: Making smaller, frequent commits makes it easier to roll back changes without affecting a lot of work.
2. Use Feature Branches: By working in separate branches for different features or fixes, you can easily discard changes in one branch without impacting others.
3. Always Communicate with Collaborators: If you’re working in a shared repository, communicate any history-altering actions (like a forced push) to avoid conflicts.
4. Consider git revert Over git reset: For changes that have been pushed to a remote repository, prefer git revert for a safer alternative to rewriting history.

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Conclusion

Knowing how to effectively remove changes in Git can be a huge asset in your workflow, especially as your projects grow and become more complex. By understanding how to handle changes at each stage—whether they’re unstaged, staged, or committed—you’ll have the flexibility to manage your code effectively and avoid committing accidental changes. Using these commands wisely will help keep your codebase clean and manageable, and make collaboration with others much smoother.