Rollback to an old Git commit in a public repo

git git-checkout git-revert
David picture David · Jan 5, 2010 · Viewed 975.6k times · Source

How can I go about rolling back to a specific commit in git?

The best answer someone could give me was to use git revert X times until I reach the desired commit.

So let's say I want to revert back to a commit that's 20 commits old, I'd have to run it 20 times.

Is there an easier way to do this?

I can't use reset because this repository is public.

Answer

Alex Reisner picture Alex Reisner · Jan 5, 2010

Try this:

git checkout [revision] .

where [revision] is the commit hash (for example: 12345678901234567890123456789012345678ab).

Don't forget the . at the end, very important. This will apply changes to the whole tree. You should execute this command in the git project root. If you are in any sub directory, then this command only changes the files in the current directory. Then commit and you should be good.

You can undo this by

git reset --hard

that will delete all modifications from the working directory and staging area.

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