How Do I Undo a Checkout in Git?
I Just Checked out an Earlier Commit from My Local Git Repo. I Haven't Made Any Changes to It, I Was Just Looking at It. Now I Want to Go Back to My Latest...
I just checked out an earlier commit from my local git repo. I haven't made any changes to it, I was just looking at it. Now I want to go back to my latest commit - how do I do that?
The exact command I used to check it out:
git checkout e5dff6b3c5d704f9b598de46551355d18235ac08
Now when I type git log, at the top I see this checked out commit, but none of my later commits. Did I accidentally delete those?
4 Answers
Try this first:
git checkout master
(If you're on a different branch than master (or main), use the branch name there instead.)
If that doesn't work, try...
For a single file:
git checkout HEAD /path/to/file
For the entire repository working copy:
git reset --hard HEAD
And if that doesn't work, then you can look in the reflog to find your old head SHA and reset to that:
git reflog
git reset --hard <sha from reflog>
HEAD is a name that always points to the latest commit in your current branch.
To undo git checkout do git checkout -, similarly to cd and cd - in shell.
You probably want git checkout master, or git checkout [branchname].
If you are using github, chances are the name for default branch is no longer master. Try git checkout main instead.
Maya is a hardware enthusiast who tests and reviews smart home devices, smartphones, wearables, and audio gear. She focuses on practical consumer value and build quality.
