How to undo a Git Add Command befor any commit

 This is a very simple mistake by developers that they accidentally add a file locally using the Git add command.

Sometimes a git add * command also adds all the files. What to do in such situation is the aim of this post.

Let's take an example:

Suppose, I mistakenly added files to Git using the command:

git add anwar-jamal-faiz.txt

I have not yet run git commit. Is there a way to undo this, so these files won't be included in the commit?

You can undo git add before commit with

git reset <file>

eg: git reset anwar-jamal-faiz.txt

which will remove it from the current index (the "about to be committed" list) without changing anything else.

You can also use: git reset

without any file name to unstage all due changes. This can come in handy when there are too many files to be listed one by one in a reasonable amount of time.

Cheers ;)

How to undo a Git commit that was not pushed

To undo a Git commit that was not pushed, you are given a few major options:

Method 1:
Undo the commit but keep all changes staged
git reset --soft HEAD~; 


Method 2:
Undo the commit and unstage the changes
git reset HEAD~; 
or 1 git reset --mixed HEAD~; 


Method 3:
Undo the commit and lose all changes
git reset --hard HEAD~;


Method 4:
In case you just want to rewrite the commit message, you could use:
git –amend instead.

eg: git commit --amend -m "an updated commit message"

However if you only want to undo Last Git Commit

Then easiest way to undo the last Git commit is 

$ git reset --soft HEAD~1

I will add following more helpful commands to check commit history, go back to a commit, and remove commits etc:

1. git log
2. git log --oneline to simplify the output:
3. To test a specific commit: git checkout . You will be in 'detached HEAD' state. You can look around, make experimental changes and commit them, even create a new branch from here using git checkout -b new_branch_name
4. To fix the detached head issue: git checkout
5. Undo this commit: git revert . This will create another commit operation in github

Free Additional Tip:
To Undo a git add i.e. remove files staged for a git commit
1. git reset filename.txt OR
2. git reset *
After this you can add again the required files


Cheers :)
-Anwar Jamal Faiz

Read some of my other posts related to Git tricks below :

• Git : Rename / Change Branch name : How to Change the branch name of a local or a remote branch in git
• Git : Cherry-pick a commit in branch
• Fatal: bad Object error in Git cherry-pick - Why Exception is thrown during cherry picking in Git ?