What's the simplest way to amend a commit in order to revert the modifications made to a single file?

Question

Currently, when I have to do it, here are the steps that I follow:

Revert the commit (without creating a new commit, of course)
Reset all the modification introduced by the “revert,” except the one of the file that I wand to revert
Stage the reversal of the file which I want to revert and amend the last commit

Is there a more straightforward way to do that?

possible duplicate of [Undo last Git commit](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/927358/undo-last-git-commit) — Brian Roach, Dec 21 '12 at 15:55
@BrianRoach this is not the same! I don't want to revert my commit. I want to amend it to reset a single file and i'm looking for a more straightforward way to do it than what i'm doing today — Samuel Rossille, Dec 21 '12 at 15:57

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 21 '12 at 15:55

3

Checkout the previous state of the file and amend the commit.

git checkout HEAD^ -- file.txt
git commit --amend

If you don't need to amend the commit log message the last command can be

git commit --amend -C HEAD

which doesn't even open your editor to edit the commit log, it just amends it.

answered Dec 21 '12 at 15:55

Jonathan Wakely

Tx, but my question is on the "Alter the file to represent the state you want to be" part. I'm looking for a more straightforward way to do it that what I'm doing today (which is explained in the question) – Samuel Rossille Dec 21 '12 at 15:59
Didn't know about the possibility to checkout a single file, thanks. – Samuel Rossille Dec 21 '12 at 16:01

1 Answers1