Git undo change to repository

Question

Sometimes I just make a mistake and do something I did not want with Git:

• committing bad code
• creating a branch with a bad name
• committing after fixing merge conflicts during git rebase instead of just adding files and running git rebase --continue (like here)
• other possible misuses

Is it possible to put git repository (.git directory) under version control itself, and then write a script to make a command like "git undo" possible? Has anybody done it before? Or is this bad idea and there is something simpler?

Answer 1

This is great resource for learning git. Here's a few useful undo commands:

One of the common undos takes place when you commit too early and possibly forget to add some files, or you mess up your commit message. If you want to try that commit again, you can run commit with the --amend option:

git commit --amend

This command takes your staging area and uses it for the commit. If you’ve made no changes since your last commit (for instance, you run this command immediately after your previous commit), then your snapshot will look exactly the same, and all you’ll change is your commit message.

Source: https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Basics-Undoing-Things

Answer 2

Sometimes I just make a mistake and do something I did not want with Git:

• committing bad code

You can easily undo the last commit using git-reset but it's not recommended to do this with published code.

git reset --soft HEAD^

(Note: You can use git commit --amend as mentioned in another answer to reset and commit at once.)

You can create a new commit that undoes the previous one and it works well with already published code.

git revert

• creating a branch with a bad name

You can undo creating a local branch by simply deleting it.

git branch -D <name>

You can likewise undo a remote branch by deleting it.

git push <remote> :<name>

Is it possible to put git repository (.git directory) under version control itself, and then write a script to make a command like "git undo" possible? Has anybody done it before? Or is this bad idea and there is something simpler?

There is no need to have your .git in version control, it has its own intrinsic version control mechanisms as described above. When things get worse, you can always track reference changes using a low level tool called git-reflog.

You might think about a possibility of a global git-undo command. But in Git it is pretty clear which actions are local and which are remote. Once you publish your changes, you most often do not want to break continuity of commits. So a theoretical user-friendly history-safe undo command would have to take this into account and actually would have to follow a specific workflow. There is definitely a lot of space for workflow specific tools on top of Git but the tool itself is pretty much workflow neutral.

Answer 3

The Question is very interesting but I think there is no solution to your problem.

1) It is not possible to track the .git directory itself (at least with git). And tracking git with some other version-control is not practical at all. And even if you could when should you stop tracking your version-control-tracking.

Should you track the tracking of the original track? This creates an endless track of tracks.

2) git is incredibly great with handling "errors" if you have done them locally. It takes some time to remember all the commands to undo and alter things afterwards, but if you have mastered them you will become way faster. At least faster then with a version-control tracking your version-control.