How to rollback the two previous commits?

Question

Consider this scenario:

Developer A does a commit: #n
Dev. B does commit #n+1
Dev. A does commit #n+2
and commit #n+3

and then discovers that in his commit #n+2 he introduced a defect.

How can dev. A rollback his last 2 commits and continue developing on commit #n+1?

Tried git reset --hard HEAD~2*, but it's coming back to dev A's commit #n.

git reset HEAD~2 should reset to #n+1 commit if you have pulled B commits at that point. Did you pulled them? — Snowbear, Jan 21 '11 at 20:04
...not before #n+2 commit. It was: [0] B pushed `commit` #n+1, [1] A `commit`ted #n+2, [2] unsuccessful `push`, [3] `pull`, [4] `push`. So on github now there is a commit (#n+2), and a Merge branch 'master' (#n+3). — Marius Butuc, Jan 21 '11 at 20:23
If you have already published the commit, you should not use reset to roll it back. (If some other developer unkown to you has pulled, this will cause pain.) Instead, use revert and make a new commit that brings you to the state that you want. Never change a published history. See http://book.git-scm.com/4_undoing_in_git_-_reset,_checkout_and_revert.html — William Pursell, Jan 22 '11 at 13:27
Possible duplicate of [How to undo last commit(s) in Git?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/927358/how-to-undo-last-commits-in-git) — Jim Fell, Feb 14 '17 at 18:54

score 163 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 13 '17 at 12:54

163

It should come back to the n+1 commit. You probably have a merge commit in there as well. You can also do a git reset --hard <sha1_of_where_you_want_to_be>

WARNING!! --hard means that any uncommitted changes you currently have will be thrown away permanently.

edited Mar 13 '17 at 12:54

igo

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answered Jan 21 '11 at 19:48

Adam Dymitruk

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How do I get the sha1 of a remote commit (not done by me)? I tried using `git reflog`, but I can only access my local reflog information e.g, commits #n, #n+2, #n+3... but not #n+1 – Marius Butuc Jan 21 '11 at 19:52
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I got the sha1 I wanted from a `git log`, but a `git push -f` was also required, so the modifications would be reflected on github. – Marius Butuc Jan 21 '11 at 21:03
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Yes but I didn't know you wanted to update a remote as well :) – Adam Dymitruk Mar 15 '11 at 08:31
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your answer was very helpful nevertheless, therefore being the accepted one too. :) – Marius Butuc Mar 15 '11 at 15:25
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WARNING!! `--hard` means that any uncommitted changes you currently have will be thrown away permanently. To roll back to a previous commit w/o throwing away your work, use `--soft`. – Ken M. Haggerty Dec 17 '15 at 16:56
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Please explain the use of --hard instead of --soft – iuridiniz Apr 13 '16 at 14:34
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@KenM.Haggerty Warning about warning - you (almost) never *really* throw anything away in git.. learn about reflog and getting things back. But yes, it's better to admit your mistakes clearly. – John Hunt Dec 18 '17 at 09:59
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@MariusButuc as you say `git push -f` then required to overwrite the HEAD on the remote branch. – EM-Creations Oct 16 '19 at 11:05
woooooorks!!!!!! – KD.S.T. Mar 07 '23 at 04:32

Nick Cuevas · Answer 2 · 2021-03-19T13:43:41.863

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I would suggest using instead something like this:

git reset --soft <commit_hash>

Unless you want it to remove all the changes up to that point, in that case use --hard instead of --soft, it would get you to the desired point in the tree WITHOUT trowing away all of the changes made in the commits.

While I was reading I tried with --HARD and for my misfortune, it removed all my changes up to that point. So, pay attention to whether you want them removed or not.

so, if you are unlucky as me try this! : git revert <commit_hash>

edited Mar 19 '21 at 13:43

answered Mar 19 '21 at 13:24

Nick Cuevas

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This answer was more helpful than the accepted answer because when I undo changes its usually because I've committed work on the wrong branch. `--soft` is better since I can always delete the files if I so choose. – Dave Thompson May 27 '22 at 13:13
Agreed. If you use `--soft`, you can then switch branches and your working directory changes still exist, so you can then do with them whatever you like. – Andy Keith Aug 22 '22 at 15:06
This answer was what I was looking for. I reverted my local commit and got my files also. Gave an upvote even though the answer is something else. – Mashmoom Aug 29 '22 at 16:36

How to rollback the two previous commits?

2 Answers2