Revert commits in git

Examples to revert changes in a repo, primarily using git revert. These examples come from the following sources:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3293531/how-to-permanently-remove-few-commits-from-remote-branch
https://christoph.ruegg.name/blog/git-howto-revert-a-commit-already-pushed-to-a-remote-reposit

Revert an already pushed commit¶

Important: Make sure you specify which branches on git push -f or you might inadvertently modify other branches![*]

Delete the last `n` commits¶

Example: Delete the last 4 commits:

git reset --hard HEAD~4

Then run the following command (on your local machine) to force the remote branch to rewrite its history:

git push --force

Delete to a specific commit ID¶

Retrieve the desired commit ID by running

git log

In the example, the desired commit is 8675309.

Then you can replace HEAD~N with the desired commit ID like this:

git reset --hard 8675309

If you want to keep changes on file system and just modify index (commit history), use --soft flag like git reset --soft HEAD~4. Then you have chance to check your latest changes and keep or drop all or parts of them. In the latter case running git status shows the files changed since <desired-commit-id>. If you use --hard option, git status will tell you that your local branch is exactly the same as the remote one. If you don't use --hard nor --soft, the default mode is used that is --mixed. In this mode, git help reset says:

Resets the index but not the working tree (i.e., the changed files are preserved but not marked for commit) and reports what has not been updated.

Revert the full commit¶

git revert 8675309

Delete the last commit¶

On a remote branch:

git push <<remote>> +8675309^:<<BRANCH_NAME_HERE>>

On a local branch:

git reset HEAD^ --hard
git push <<remote>> -f

Where +8675309 is your commit hash and git interprets x^ as the parent of x, and + as a forced non-fastforwared push.

Delete the commit from a list¶

git rebase -i 8675309^

This will open and editor showing a list of all commits. Delete the one you want to get rid off. Finish the rebase and push force to repo.

git rebase --continue
git push <remote_repo> <remote_branch> -f

Remove commits from remote without removing from local¶

clean way of removing your commits from the remote repository without losing your work

git reset --soft HEAD~1 # 1 represents only last 1 commit 
git stash # hold your work temporary storage temporarily.
git pull # bring your local in sync with remote
git reset --hard HEAD~1 # hard reset 1 commit behind (deletes local commit)
git push -f # force push to sync local with remote
git stash pop # get back your unpushed work from stash