Re: Undo last commit?

From: Ben Walton <bwalton@artsci.utoronto.ca>
Date: Jun 18, 2011, 13:43 UTC
Message-ID: <1308404291-sup-8978@pinkfloyd.chass.utoronto.ca>
In-Reply-To: <BANLkTinWujKYvx_fh2iBDOdMbywqzfgwUA@mail.gmail.com>

Excerpts from Mike's message of Sat Jun 18 09:15:49 -0400 2011:

Hi Mike,

Show 6 quoted lines

> 3. I googled the problem and it seems everyone has a different way of
> doing this. (Maybe git is too confusing if everyone has different
> methods that all work slightly differently!?). Anyway I executed this
> command:
> 
> % git commit --amend

This command lets you modify the last commit by either adding/removing changes which you build up with git add or in the case where you've not staged anything, simply edit the commit message.

> % git reset --hard HEAD~1

What you wanted was:

git reset HEAD^ or git reset HEAD~1

The --hard resets your working tree to match that commit exactly, throwing away uncommitted changes. In your case, it threw away the unstaged changes you'd made and the last commit. You should be able to salvage your last commit by:

git reset ORIG_HEAD

The stuff that had never been git added is likely lost. Because git had never created an object for those changes, there won't be much to work with.

You might inspect the output of git reflog to see if that's of any value, but I don't think it will be in your case.

> Any ideas how to rectify this issue? I presume the 'git commit
> --amend' just changes the commit message? I daren't try anything else
> myself in case I make matters worse.

As always, take a snapshot of the .git directory before doing further mucking. Maybe one of the git gurus here has ideas about the trashed unstaged changes...?

Thanks -Ben -- Ben Walton Systems Programmer - CHASS University of Toronto C:416.407.5610 | W:416.978.4302