Undo last commit?

Hi fellow gitters,

I have performed a 'git commit' on all 'added' files by mistake and now I want to undo this commit to return to the original state. Here's a more detailed description:

1. I did a 'git status' and there were files which I had 'added' ready
for a commit. There were also some changes that had not been 'added'
yet. See below:

% git status # On branch master # Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 7 commits. # # Changes to be committed: # (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage) # # modified: cgi-bin/example1.php # modified: cgi-bin/example2.php # modified: example3.php # # Changed but not updated: # (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed) # (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory) # # modified: cgi-bin/example4.php # modified: example5.php #

2. I accidentally did a commit for ALL files because I forgot to
specify the filename at the end of the commit.
e.g. instead of 'commit -m "commit message" example3.php' I did
'commit -m "commit message"'.

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

But I aborted this by exiting my text editor.

4. I then tried:

% git reset --hard HEAD~1

5. However now when I do a 'git status' none of the files that were
original listed are there. A git status now gives this:

# On branch master # Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 7 commits. # nothing to commit (working directory clean)

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.

Mike