Resetting a Branch

If you've found yourself on this page, someone has probably asked you to reset your branch.

What this means is that you need to roll back on the commits you've made recently, because something you changed was not mergeable, and the fastest way to fix that is to delete the change and start over.

First, run:

git log --format=oneline

Find the first seven or so characters in the commit ID for the commit you want to roll back to, then hit q to exit the log.

To roll back the commits do something like:

git reset --hard 63ab2de^

This will delete all the commits up until and including the commit with ID 63ab2de. (The ^ symbol is shorthand for "the commit before the listed one". This is why this command includes a rollback of 63ab2de. If we wanted to roll back all commits after 63ab2de, we'd use git reset --hard 63ab2de, without the carat.)

Check out your git log to make sure everything is in good order. If things look right, we'll rewrite our remote history by running:

git push --force origin HEAD

We must use the --force flag, since git will not permit us to rewrite history without telling it that we're really sure about it.