You can revert individual commits with:

git revert <commit_hash>

This will create a new commit which reverts the changes of the commit you specified. Note that it only reverts that specific commit, and not commits that come after that. If you want to revert a range of commits, you can do it like this:

git revert <oldest_commit_hash>..<latest_commit_hash>

It reverts all the commits after <oldest_commit_hash> up to and including <latest_commit_hash>. Some versions of git also revert the <oldest_commit_hash> itself, so double check if that commit gets reverted or not. You can always drop the latest revert commit (which reverts the oldest commit) with g reset --hard HEAD~.

To find out the hash of the commit(s) you can use git log.

Look at the git-revert man page for more information about the git revert command. Also, look at this answer for more information about reverting commits.

Extra note for re-applying reverted commits:

Usually you revert commits because you discovered the commits that you pushed turn out to have an issue. Then you first want to restore the repo to a stable state, before you continue to fix the issue. So then you would first do the git revert, as described before. Then push those revert commits, so the remote is stable. After that you would want to re-apply the reverted commits locally, so your local repo's files are back to the state before the revert. Then you can fix the issue.

To re-apply the reverted commits, you have to revert the revert commits. So what you would do, is to again execute the git revert command, but then with the range of commits of the revert commits. So your new revert commits will revert the previous revert commits. Then your files are back to the state before the first revert. Then you can fix the issue, create a new commit with the fix, and then push all the new commits.

Answer from gitaarik on Stack Overflow
Top answer
1 of 16
1910

You can revert individual commits with:

git revert <commit_hash>

This will create a new commit which reverts the changes of the commit you specified. Note that it only reverts that specific commit, and not commits that come after that. If you want to revert a range of commits, you can do it like this:

git revert <oldest_commit_hash>..<latest_commit_hash>

It reverts all the commits after <oldest_commit_hash> up to and including <latest_commit_hash>. Some versions of git also revert the <oldest_commit_hash> itself, so double check if that commit gets reverted or not. You can always drop the latest revert commit (which reverts the oldest commit) with g reset --hard HEAD~.

To find out the hash of the commit(s) you can use git log.

Look at the git-revert man page for more information about the git revert command. Also, look at this answer for more information about reverting commits.

Extra note for re-applying reverted commits:

Usually you revert commits because you discovered the commits that you pushed turn out to have an issue. Then you first want to restore the repo to a stable state, before you continue to fix the issue. So then you would first do the git revert, as described before. Then push those revert commits, so the remote is stable. After that you would want to re-apply the reverted commits locally, so your local repo's files are back to the state before the revert. Then you can fix the issue.

To re-apply the reverted commits, you have to revert the revert commits. So what you would do, is to again execute the git revert command, but then with the range of commits of the revert commits. So your new revert commits will revert the previous revert commits. Then your files are back to the state before the first revert. Then you can fix the issue, create a new commit with the fix, and then push all the new commits.

2 of 16
870

A solution that keeps no traces of the "undo".

NOTE: Don't do this if someone already pulled your change (I would use this only on my personal repo.)

Run:

git reset <previous label or sha1>

Note: previous means the commit before the erroneous commit

This will re-checkout all the updates locally (so git status will list all updated files, meaning, the files you changed/added/.. and were committed).

Then you "do your work" and re-commit your changes (Note: This step is optional).

git commit -am "blabla"

At this moment your local tree differs from the remote

git push -f <remote-name> <branch-name>

will force the remote branch to take this push and remove the previous one (specifying remote-name and branch-name is not mandatory but is recommended to avoid updating all branches with update flag).

!! Watch-out some tags may still be pointing removed commit !! how-to-delete-a-remote-tag

🌐
Graphite
graphite.com › guides › git-revert-commit-after-pushing
git revert commit after pushing - Graphite
Engineers at Vercel, Snowflake & The Browser Company are shipping faster and staying unblocked with Graphite. ... This updates the remote branch with the new commit that effectively undoes the changes made by the previous commit. If you need to revert more than one commit, you can use the git revert to specify a range of commits: ... This command sequence reverts all changes in the specified range, combining them into a single commit. Communicate with your team: Before reverting commits that have been pushed, especially in shared repositories, inform your team about the changes.
🌐
DEV Community
dev.to › github › how-to-undo-pushed-commits-with-git-2pe6
How to Undo Pushed Commits with Git - DEV Community
April 6, 2022 - As the article mentioned, you can revert multiple commits by reverting an entire branch or a tag. And no, you don’t need to start from the top. You can pick any commit or group of commits in the repo’s history to revert. ... Principal Developer Advocate at Entire; previously at GitHub.
🌐
Medium
medium.com › @pinglinh › how-to-revert-to-a-previous-commit-when-youve-already-pushed-your-changes-910fec9af058
How to revert to a previous commit when you’ve already pushed your changes | by linhothy | Medium
September 25, 2017 - From this, I can see that the previous commit had the ID log of 080ebf7. ... 3. I then copied and pasted my code from the folder where I saved it at the beginning and did git status: N.B. I set my git alias (shortcut) for git status to be git st so don’t be confused by this :) 4. To check what branch I was on, I typed in the following command: ... This is to check for local and version. ... 5. I then wanted to checkout to master and then push the changes into my master branch.
🌐
Reddit
reddit.com › r/git › i want to revert the code to a previous commit.
r/git on Reddit: I want to revert the code to a previous commit.
November 8, 2022 -

I did some feature changes in my code but now I want it to be like the same code which was 16 commits ago. All my changes are pushed to GitHub and I do not want to lose my history or change my branch. How do I do this in the most minimum steps?

🌐
Reddit
reddit.com › r/git › how to undo pushed commits
r/git on Reddit: How to undo pushed commits
January 29, 2024 -
  • One of our artists managed to push 1 month of progress without merging

  • As you can see I tried to undo the commits one by one in reverse order

  • I couldn't undo the merge commit of Arvincle because it's empty

  • When I try to revert the commit before that I get one file I need to merge first, but the rest of the changes are not undone

Is there a way to reset the HEAD of main to the last valid commit?

🌐
Joel Dare
joeldare.com › reverting-to-a-previous-git-commit
Reverting to a Previous Git Commit | Joel Dare
August 30, 2024 - If you don’t work from main you can also do the same reset on a branch and push that instead. This has the positive side-effect that history is retained. This will also set you up so that you can use a GitHub pull request if that’s part of your workflow. Here are the steps to do the same thing on a branch: ... From there you can do a pull request between main and the new branch (main <- my-new-branch). Before I got there I need to learn a few things. I returned to AI to get ideas on how to get back to commit c84bd.
Find elsewhere
🌐
TheServerSide
theserverside.com › video › Undo-and-revert-pushed-Git-commits
Undo and revert pushed Git commits | TheServerSide
If you have pushed a bad commit to GitHub or GitLab, the easiest thing to do is simply issue Git's revert command and push back to the server. ... When the git revert command is issued without any other parameters, it undoes the changes that were part of the previous commit and creates a new ...
🌐
GitKraken
gitkraken.com › home › learn › problems & solutions › how to revert a git commit
Git Revert Commit | Solutions to Git Problems
February 5, 2024 - If you need to make revisions to a commit that is not your last commit, the best solution is to create a new commit by reverting the old commit. As a Git best practice, you should avoid doing anything that will require you to force push — and rewrite the history — of your main branch(es).
🌐
Reddit
reddit.com › r/git › revert to previous commit on github?
r/git on Reddit: revert to previous commit on github?
January 17, 2025 -

Hi, I would like to revert to a previous commit. I believe I did this correctly on my local repository using git reset --hard commit-hash. I would like to push this to github but of this results in

error: failed to push some refs to 'https://github.com/shmish/smartmark.git'
hint: Updates were rejected because the tip of your current branch is behind

I am the only working on this repository, so I am not worried about conflicts, I am trying to move back one commit.

Top answer
1 of 2
14
As a general rule, once you push your repository to a remote repository, your commits should be considered permanent. By resetting your repository to an earlier state, you made it impossible to push to the remote repository. You have a couple options: git push -f will override that rule and allow you to push. I don't recommend this option unless you're the only user of that remote repository. If other people have been pulling from that repository, you will very likely mess them up. You also might not have the necessary permissions to do this if this is someone else's repository. Go back to where you before you executed git reset --hard and do it right. You could execute these steps: commands: git branch foo (makes a placeholder to where you are now) git pull (get your local repository back in sync with the remote) git revert git push What git revert does is construct a whole new commit that un-does the one you want to get rid of. The old one remains in the git history and then there's a new commit that reverses it. There's no way to really get rid of the old one since it's there in the remote repository and in the repositories of anybody who's pulled from it. If what you want to do something more complicated than just reverting one commit, then there is where branch "foo" comes in: git branch foo (makes a placeholder to where you are now) git pull (get your local repository back in sync with the remote) git diff HEAD foo > /tmp/patch patch -p1 < /tmp/patch git commit -a git push If it's not obvious, what this does is construct a patch that will change all the files in your current branch to what they were in your "reverted" branch. Then you apply that patch and commit the changes. My notes on the subject: http://www.efalk.org/Docs/Git/merging.html Disclaimer: these are Unix commands. If you're on Windows, you're on your own here.
2 of 2
4
I am the only working on this repository, so I am not worried about conflicts In this case, a git reset … followed by a git push --force-with-lease is totally fine. (note: a simple push -f would also work, but you should get into the habit of using force-with-lease for later.
🌐
Medium
jeevabyte.medium.com › how-to-revert-to-a-previous-commit-in-git-and-make-it-the-latest-one-6ac766ff78f4
How to Revert to a Previous Commit in Git and Make It the Latest One | by Jeeva-AWSLabsJourney | Medium
March 9, 2025 - If you want to completely discard the last five commits and reset your branch to the state of the previous commit, follow these steps. Run the following command to view the commit history: ... This will display a list of commits with their hashes. Identify the fifth last commit from the top. ... This will reset your branch to that specific commit, deleting all subsequent changes permanently. If your repository is remote (GitHub, GitLab, etc.), you’ll need to force push the changes:
🌐
YouTube
youtube.com › cameron mckenzie
How to Undo a Pushed Git Commit - Reset & Revert a Git Commit After Push - YouTube
Need to undo a pushed Git commit from GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket or CodeCommit? Well, there are two ways to revert a pushed commit in git.You can revert a com...
Published   January 31, 2024
🌐
Opensource.com
opensource.com › article › 18 › 6 › git-reset-revert-rebase-commands
How to reset, revert, and return to previous states in Git | Opensource.com
If we do a git log now, we'll see a new commit that reflects the contents before the previous commit. $ git log --oneline 11b7712 Revert "File with three lines" b764644 File with three lines 7c709f0 File with two lines 9ef9173 File with one line · Here are the current contents of the file in the working directory: ... Why would you choose to do a revert over a reset operation? If you have already pushed your chain of commits to the remote repository (where others may have pulled your code and started working with it), a revert is a nicer way to cancel out changes for them.
🌐
GitHub
gist.github.com › gunjanpatel › 18f9e4d1eb609597c50c2118e416e6a6
Git HowTo: revert a commit already pushed to a remote repository · GitHub
If you have the master branch checked out locally, you can also do it in two simpler steps: First reset the branch to the parent of the current commit, then force-push it to the remote.
🌐
Reddit
reddit.com › r/git › i'm struggling to understand how to roll back to a previous point. i want to disregard the crossed out chain completely. what am i missing here?
r/git on Reddit: I'm struggling to understand how to roll back to a previous point. I want to disregard the crossed out chain completely. What am I missing here?
December 11, 2024 - If you absolutely want to roll-back your branch to a previous commit, forgetting all newer commits: git reset --hard <oldcommitID> ... This is great feedback, thank you! Very fair, I was just kinda clicking buttons in the GUI just hoping I hit ...
🌐
GitProtect.io
gitprotect.io › strona główna › git revert file to previous commit: how to do it?
Git Revert File to Previous Commit: How to Do It? - Blog | GitProtect.io
June 10, 2021 - Another method to remove a file ... commit –amend’. Finally, you push the updated commit to your repository using: ‘git push -f’. Yes, you can....
Top answer
1 of 3
7

When trying to revert to a previous commit (for instance 123abc) ...

The emphasis I added here on the preposition "to", as in revert to, is crucial. The accepted answer at your linked question (How do I revert a Git repository to a previous commit?) calls this out:

This depends a lot on what you mean by "revert".

Running git revert on a single commit may not suffice. See the answers there about reverting multiple commits, if needed.

Running git reset --hard may suffice, but introduces the very problem you've encountered. The things to understand here are:

  1. A branch name simply lets Git find one particular commit. We say that the branch name points to the commit. Using git reset, we can change the one particular commit to which some branch name points. Nothing else happens in the repository yet, although depending on the kind of git reset you run, something else might happen before git reset finishes: the first step of this git reset is just to change one of your own branch names. Since you're considering (or have used) --hard, some more things will change in your repository, but they're less important at the moment.

  2. Every Git repository has its own branch names. Moving one of your branch names has no effect on any other repository.

  3. What you need to do is to get some other Git repository to change one of its branch names. That's where you run into this problem:

    I cannot push this (I need to pull before and pulling moves me forward).

    The git push command is how you ask—or, using --force, command—some other Git repository to change or create or delete some of its names (branch names, tag names, and other such names). But each Git repository is set up to easily accept new incoming commits, yet at the same time, resist the suggestion to throw away any existing commits.

When you use git reset to move one of your branch names "backwards", so as to revert to (not revert as in add-a-commit-that-backs-out) some previous commit, you're deliberately throwing away some existing commit(s). Since you control your own Git repository, you can definitely do this to your own repository. Since the git reset command is meant to do this kind of throwing-away,1 it does so without complaint. But git push isn't, and their Git complains.

As soon as you use git pull, their repository has you put back all the commits you snipped out of your own repository. Git is, after all, designed to add commits as easily as possible! That leaves you with the situation you're in.

You now have a choice:

  • Force the other Git repository to discard some commits. This requires sufficient permissions. It also means that everyone else who is using that other Git repository need to take action with any clones they have made, because their clones will enthusiastically put back all the commits you are attempting to prune. So this is kind of mean to those other people.

  • Or, use git revert or some other command to add some commit(s) to your repository that, in the end, result in putting the files back, but don't remove any old commits. The new commits simply add on to the old ones. The old ones are still there for anyone who would like to ask about them (git log) or use them (git switch --detach hash-id, for instance).

Adding new commit(s) is what Git is designed to do, so the latter is the way to go unless there's some really strong reason to ditch the old commits.

As the question you linked notes, all of this is a lot easier with unpublished commits: a commit that only you have, in your own private repository, is simply not in any other Git repository. If you shave those commits off your own branches, nobody will ever know. They won't be able to object that a git push shaves those commits off their branches, because those commits aren't on their branches. (Again, each branch name is local to each Git repository. One repository can show another one the commit hash ID stored in its branch name, but each repository takes responsibility in keeping its own hash IDs in its own branch names. The commits get shared; the branch names do not.)

Since the commits you're looking at are published you cannot use this short-cut.


1This makes git reset a very-high-powered tool, like some sort of flame-throwing chainsaw, or industrial steel-cutting laser, or something. This over-powered-ness is part of the reason that Git 2.23 now has git restore: some of the things you can do, that used to require using git reset, can now be done with the rather gentler git restore. Both commands will throw away in-progress work if you ask them, but git restore is more like a hand-saw, or bolt cutters, or something along these lines.

2 of 3
1

You should try using git revert <commit hash>. This will revert the selected commit and you can then push the changes

Top answer
1 of 16
12602

This depends a lot on what you mean by "revert".

Temporarily switch to a different commit

If you want to temporarily go back to it, fool around, then come back to where you are, all you have to do is check out the desired commit:

# This will detach your HEAD, that is, leave you with no branch checked out:
git checkout 0d1d7fc32

Or if you want to make commits while you're there, go ahead and make a new branch while you're at it:

git checkout -b old-state 0d1d7fc32

To go back to where you were, just check out the branch you were on again. (If you've made changes, as always when switching branches, you'll have to deal with them as appropriate. You could reset to throw them away; you could stash, checkout, stash pop to take them with you; you could commit them to a branch there if you want a branch there.)

Hard delete unpublished commits

If, on the other hand, you want to really get rid of everything you've done since then, there are two possibilities. One, if you haven't published any of these commits, simply reset:

# This will destroy any local modifications.
# Don't do it if you have uncommitted work you want to keep.
git reset --hard 0d1d7fc32

# Alternatively, if there's work to keep:
git stash
git reset --hard 0d1d7fc32
git stash pop
# This saves the modifications, then reapplies that patch after resetting.
# You could get merge conflicts, if you've modified things which were
# changed since the commit you reset to.

If you mess up, you've already thrown away your local changes, but you can at least get back to where you were before by resetting again.

Undo published commits with new commits

On the other hand, if you've published the work, you probably don't want to reset the branch, since that's effectively rewriting history. In that case, you could indeed revert the commits. In many enterprise organisations, the concept of "protected" branches will even prevent history from being rewritten on some major branches. In this case, reverting is your only option.

With Git, revert has a very specific meaning: create a commit with the reverse patch to cancel it out. This way you don't rewrite any history.

First figure out what commits to revert. Depending on the technique chosen below, you want to either revert only the merge commits, or only the non-merge commits.

# This lists all merge commits between 0d1d7fc and HEAD:
git log --merges --pretty=format:"%h" 0d1d7fc..HEAD | tr '\n' ' '

# This lists all non merge commits between 0d1d7fc and HEAD:
git log --no-merges --pretty=format:"%h" 0d1d7fc..HEAD | tr '\n' ' '

Note: if you revert multiple commits, the order matters. Start with the most recent commit.

# This will create three separate revert commits, use non merge commits only:
git revert a867b4af 25eee4ca 0766c053

# It also takes ranges. This will revert the last two commits:
git revert HEAD~2..HEAD

# Similarly, you can revert a range of commits using commit hashes (non inclusive of first hash):
git revert 0d1d7fc..a867b4a

# Reverting a merge commit. You can also use a range of merge commits here.
git revert -m 1 <merge_commit_sha>

# To get just one, you could use `rebase -i` to squash them afterwards
# Or, you could do it manually (be sure to do this at top level of the repo)
# get your index and work tree into the desired state, without changing HEAD:
git checkout 0d1d7fc32 .

# Then commit. Be sure and write a good message describing what you just did
git commit

The git-revert manpage actually covers a lot of this in its description. Another useful link is this git-scm.com section discussing git-revert.

If you decide you didn't want to revert after all, you can revert the revert (as described here) or reset back to before the revert (see the previous section).

You may also find this answer helpful in this case:
How can I move HEAD back to a previous location? (Detached head) & Undo commits

2 of 16
3981

Lots of complicated and dangerous answers here, but it's actually easy:

git revert --no-commit 0d1d7fc3..HEAD
git commit
git push

This will revert everything from the HEAD back to the commit hash (excluded), meaning it will recreate that commit state in the working tree as if every commit after 0d1d7fc3 had been walked back. You can then commit the current tree, and it will create a brand new commit essentially equivalent to the commit you "reverted" to.

(The --no-commit flag lets git revert all the commits at once- otherwise you'll be prompted for a message for each commit in the range, littering your history with unnecessary new commits.)

This is a safe and easy way to rollback to a previous state. No history is destroyed, so it can be used for commits that have already been made public.


Note on merge commits:
If one of the commits between 0766c053..HEAD (inclusive) is a merge then there will be an error popping up (to do with no -m specified). The following link may help those encountering that: Why does git revert complain about a missing -m option? (thanks @timhc22 for pointing out)

🌐
DEV Community
dev.to › isabelcmdcosta › how-to-undo-the-last-commit--31mg
Git Revert Pushed Commit: How to undo the last commit - DEV Community
February 20, 2018 - If you want to test the previous commit just do git checkout <test commit hash>; then you can test that last working version of your project. If you want to revert the last commit just do git revert <unwanted commit hash>; then you can push ...