Git: How to reset a remote Git repository to remove all commits?

Question

How can I reset a remote and local Git repository to remove all commits?

I would like to start fresh with the current Head as the initial commit.

related: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/495345/git-removing-selected-commits-from-repository — miku, Jan 05 '10 at 13:11
I don't want to cherry pick or do anything else, I just want to remove all changes and reset the public repo also. As I am new Git user, I made some wrong commits. Removing .GIT directory is not an option as there is a public repository also. — Priyank Bolia, Jan 05 '10 at 13:22
You can do a force push also, so removing the .git dir is actually an option. — Lilith River, Jan 05 '10 at 13:24
just nitpicking, but "revision" is an svn terminology and doesn't make much sense in a tree shaped history. — Tamás Szelei, Nov 30 '11 at 15:41
@TamásSzelei "Revision" is a perfectly acceptable synonym for "commit". It's used both in the Pro Git book (e.g. [here](http://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Revision-Selection)) and in the Git man pages. — jub0bs, Apr 10 '15 at 15:44

Lilith River · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-06T17:00:54.147

429

Completely reset?

Delete the .git directory locally.

Recreate the git repostory:

$ cd (project-directory)
$ git init
$ (add some files)
$ git add .
$ git commit -m 'Initial commit'

Push to remote server, overwriting. Remember you're going to mess everyone else up doing this … you better be the only client.
```
$ git remote add origin <url>
$ git push --force --set-upstream origin master
```

edited May 06 '15 at 17:00

answered Jan 05 '10 at 13:23

Lilith River

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+1 Was my first thought too. You have to backup and restore any local configs you have though. – R. Martinho Fernandes Jan 05 '10 at 13:27
Still in the remote repo at GitHub, in the messages I see previous messages. – Priyank Bolia Jan 05 '10 at 13:44
1

but the commits are gone, and repository is reset. Can we remove those previous messages also in front of the filenames. – Priyank Bolia Jan 05 '10 at 13:45
5

Remove the remote repository directly on GitHub and recreate it there. – Bombe Jan 05 '10 at 14:14
1

Should be git push --force instead of git push -force – William Notowidagdo Nov 30 '11 at 07:26
I recommend you do a copy of your repository first just in case. – Michael J. Calkins Jul 03 '13 at 06:13
13

If you don't want to commit any files in your "Initial commit", you can just not add any files, and add the `--allow-empty` flag at the end of `git commit -m 'Initial commit'`. – Jul 03 '14 at 12:49
2

Using Git 2.3.2, I had to use ```git push --force --set-upstream origin master``` But all the rest was working as described – Sébastien Stormacq May 06 '15 at 16:42

score 7 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

7

First, follow the instructions in this question to squash everything to a single commit. Then make a forced push to the remote:

$ git push origin +master

And optionally delete all other branches both locally and remotely:

$ git push origin :<branch>
$ git branch -d <branch>

edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

Community

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answered Jan 05 '10 at 13:18

R. Martinho Fernandes

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score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 31 '20 at 19:57

Were I you I would do something like this:

Before doing anything please keep a copy (better safe than sorry)

git checkout master
git checkout -b temp 
git reset --hard <sha-1 of your first commit> 
git add .
git commit -m 'Squash all commits in single one'
git push origin temp

After doing that you can delete other branches.

Result: You are going to have a branch with only 2 commits.

Use git log --oneline to see your commits in a minimalistic way and to find SHA-1 for commits!

This is a great idea if you're not changing the remote origin — clementiano, Nov 17 '20 at 15:26

Git: How to reset a remote Git repository to remove all commits?

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