Re: [RFC] reset --hard: warn before discarding staged content with no commit history

From: Koutsouflakis Stefanos <koutsouflakis.stefanos@proton.me>
Date: Dec 11, 2025, 16:33 UTC
Message-ID: <lVqXkS_Nc_hxtxMq3nevB6dCfPgh-qw9A6dLROQqGqN1_iqDONXeGQmp91hGmVTmaSIqGy5QVMC5OuzJmuULP-rUWcqBSv_L8pnLgPjoDsM=@proton.me>
In-Reply-To: <d318c46c-fbc3-4e47-8c3f-165ca9a26225@kdbg.org>

On Thursday, December 11th, 2025 at 14:34, Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org> wrote:

Show 22 quoted lines

> Am 11.12.25 um 12:53 schrieb Koutsouflakis Stefanos:
> 
> > On Wed, Dec 10, 2025 at 10:24 PM Junio C Hamano gitster@pobox.com wrote:
> > 
> > > The thinking has always been "'--hard' means what it says! HARD
> > > removes things harder than other modes---there is [no] need to add
> > > '--force' to it".
> > 
> > I agree that "--hard" conveys serious intent. But I would argue
> > there is a meaningful difference between "lose your uncommitted
> > changes" and "lose your entire project".
> > 
> > To be clear, I'm addressing a very narrow scenario:
> > the user has run init on an existing codebase, staged files
> > with git add, but has not yet made a first commit. Running
> > reset --hard at this point destroys the entire project
> > with no realistic recovery path. This is almost certainly
> > never intentional.
> 
> I would argue that bad "tutorials" and "recipes" are to blame. I have
> seen far too many that casually suggest `git reset --hard` without
> warning and in an easy to copy-and-paste format.

Agreed. Many users copy-paste their way through Git or use commands
they don't fully understand. That's not the ideal way to interact with 
Git, but they don't deserve do be punished.

Show 5 quoted lines

> That said, I have some sympathy for the case. Would it be palatable to
> have `git reset --hard` refuse to do anything if the destination tree is
> empty?
> 
> -- Hannes

Good point. Checking for an empty destination tree seems to be the better approach. Refusing to proceed (without providing the option of bypassing it with --force) also seems reasonable, maybe with a helpful message explaining the reason. On a second thought "--hard --force" is a bit redundant, like "rm -rf --really-delete".

Thanks, Stefanos