Git revert to previous commit

There are situation when you mess up so bad you want to just go back and restart again. Fortunately If you are using Git then you can do it. We will be discussing ways in which git allows you to revert to previous commit

1.Git reset

Git rest moves your head to a specific commit. Given below are few example

// Move to previous commit and ignores any changes. Head points to the last commit in current branch
git reset --hard HEAD

git reset if used with hard destroys everything after the target commit. HEAD points to the target commit and every thing after it is lost

git reset can also be used with --soft option and --mixed option as shown below

//moves head to specified commit.But unlike --hard you get to keep your files and they are staged 
git reset --soft <Commit id>  

//moves head to specified commit.But unlike --hard you get to keep your files and they are un staged 
git reset --mixed <Commit id>  

2.Git revert

git revert is a safe option where unlike git reset you do not loose any git history. Git revert essentially picks the target commit inverts it and writes it in from of the current commit. Thus after revert you get additional commits instead of loosing some. Since loosing history can be a issue when the code in question is also proof of activity revert is a better choice most of the time

As you can see in image above git revert does not destroy history rather it creates new one. After revert your project is same as it was on target commit.

3.Git checkout

Apart from reverting and resetting one might find checkout helpful specially in case where you need to branch out a feature flow from a specific commit.

git checkout -b <branch name> <commit id>

This will create a branch from specific commit and will allow you to carry out your parallel flow in new branch.

Hope this helps!!!