Re: reset doesn't reset a revert?

Hi,

Under Windows XP, using git version 1.6.4.msysgit.0, I have tried:

E:\lucru\git\k>echo foo > file.txt E:\lucru\git\k>echo bar >> file.txt E:\lucru\git\k>git init Initialized empty Git repository in E:/lucru/git/k/.git/ E:\lucru\git\k>git add . warning: CRLF will be replaced by LF in file.txt. E:\lucru\git\k>git commit -a [master (root-commit) e969cd5] First commit warning: CRLF will be replaced by LF in file.txt. 1 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) create mode 100644 file.txt E:\lucru\git\k>echo baz >> file.txt E:\lucru\git\k>git commit -a warning: CRLF will be replaced by LF in file.txt. warning: CRLF will be replaced by LF in file.txt. [master warning: CRLF will be replaced by LF in file.txt. fabd2f2] Added baz to file.txt 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) E:\lucru\git\k>type file.txt foo bar baz

#Until here, everything's OK.

E:\lucru\git\k>git revert HEAD~ fatal: Cannot revert a root commit

#Does anyone know what does this mean? So I've tried with HEAD^ instead.

E:\lucru\git\k>git revert HEAD^ More? More? Finished one revert. [master 1beba20] Revert "Added baz to file.txt" 1 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

# What should I respond to the questions More? #I've seen that no matter what I type, it adds to the "HEAD" and tells that that commit can't be found, so I just pressed enter.

E:\lucru\git\k>git status
# On branch master
nothing to commit (working directory clean)
E:\lucru\git\k>git log --pretty=format:"%s %h"
WARNING: terminal is not fully functional
Revert "Added baz to file.txt" 1beba20
Added baz to file.txt fabd2f2
First commit e969cd5
(END)

#It seems that the revert commit was added successfully.

E:\lucru\git\k>type file.txt foo bar

#And it seems that not only the repository was changed, but the working directory also. Is it correct?

#Well, now let's say I discovered that this new commit was an error and I want to reset it. #And I used HEAD^ because HEAD~ didn't work with revert.

E:\lucru\git\k>git reset HEAD^
More?
More?
E:\lucru\git\k>git log --pretty=format:"%s %h"
WARNING: terminal is not fully functional
Revert "Added baz to file.txt" 1beba20
Added baz to file.txt fabd2f2
First commit e969cd5
(END)

#Well, git reset didn't reset the latest commit. #Does anyone know why or what I am doing wrong?

E:\lucru\git\k>git status
# On branch master
nothing to commit (working directory clean)
E:\lucru\git\k>git reset HEAD~
file.txt: locally modified
E:\lucru\git\k>git log --pretty=format:"%s %h"
WARNING: terminal is not fully functional
Added baz to file.txt fabd2f2
First commit e969cd5
(END)

#This time git reset resetted the latest HEAD. #It seems that git reset wants the HEAD~ commit, while git revert wants the HEAD^ commit. Do you know why (or can I find an explanation for this somewhere)?

E:\lucru\git\k>type file.txt foo bar

#However, git reset modified just the repository and not the working directory.

I added the line baz in the file file.txt, commited this change and then reverted to the previous commit. This has also deleted the line "baz" from the file. Then I resetted the last commit (the revert), however the line "baz" didn't appear in the file.

Is this something normal I should expect, or I am doing something wrong?

Thank you very much.

Octavian

Git revert isn't like svn revert. GIt revert creates a new commit off of the HEAD that introduces a change that's the opposite of the change introduced in the commit you specify. The first commit in a repository doesn't introduce any change because there's no previous commit.

Like it says, you can't revert the first commit in the history.

It seems the caret is special to the windows command prompt. I don't know what it does, but a line of nonsense that ends in ^ causes the More? More? response you described. Try quoting the argument so your shell doesn't mangle it.

That's how revert usually works,

I don't know what the ^ means, but I'm guessing it's not getting passed to git. I'm guessing what you really did is `git reset HEAD` which clears the index but doesn't undo any commits.

Windows' command shell sucks. I don't use it. I don't recommend it. Try Cygwin. Or PuTTYcyg.

git reset has three modes. --hard, --soft, and --mixed. If you weren't using windows' shell you could type man git-reset to find out about them. Try googling git reset. Basically git reset doesn't mess with your working copy files unless you ask it to.

Reset and revert are very different commands. Make sure you understand the difference.

Adam