git method

2025-08-11

If you want to completely discard all local changes and reset your branch to match the latest remote version (origin/main), you should use:

git reset --hard origin/main

What this does:

  1. Discards all local changes (unstaged, staged, and even commits not pushed yet).
  2. Forces your local branch to exactly match origin/main.

Steps:

# 1. Fetch the latest changes from remote (you already did this)
git fetch origin

# 2. Reset your local branch to match origin/main (DANGER: LOSES ALL LOCAL CHANGES)
git reset --hard origin/main

⚠️ WARNING:

  • This permanently deletes all uncommitted changes and any local commits not on origin/main.
  • If you have important uncommitted work, stash or commit it first: 
    git stash  # Temporarily saves changes
git reset --hard origin/main
git stash pop  # Brings changes back (if needed)

Alternative (Safer):

If you just want to update your branch but keep working changes, use:

git pull origin main  # Merges remote changes

But if you really want to discard everything and match the remote, git reset --hard origin/main is the way.

Would you like to verify the remote state before resetting? You can check differences with:

git log --oneline origin/main  # See remote commits
git log --oneline HEAD         # See local commits

If you want to roll back to the last committed version (the state of your last git commit before any unpushed changes), follow these steps:

1. Check Your Commit History

First, see your recent commits to confirm the correct one:

git log --oneline

(Example output:)

a1b2c3d (HEAD) WIP: New feature (unwanted changes)
e4f5g6h Last good commit (the one you want to return to)
  • The most recent commit (a1b2c3d) is your unpushed changes.
  • The commit before (e4f5g6h) is your last good state.

2. Reset to the Last Good Commit

To completely discard all changes after e4f5g6h (including staged and working directory changes):

git reset --hard e4f5g6h

(Replace e4f5g6h with your actual commit hash or use HEAD~1 to go back one commit.)

Alternative Options

  • If you want to keep changes as unstaged files (not committed but not deleted): 
    git reset --mixed e4f5g6h
  • If you want to keep changes staged (but undo the commit): 
    git reset --soft e4f5g6h

3. Verify the Reset

Check that your working directory is clean:

git status

You should see:

On branch [your-branch]
nothing to commit, working tree clean

Important Notes

  • --hard is destructive: It permanently deletes all uncommitted and unpushed changes. If unsure, back them up first: 
    git stash -u  # Stashes even untracked files
  • If you already pushed: Since you didn’t push, no need for git push --force.

Summary

To completely undo all local changes since the last commit and return to the last clean state:

git reset --hard HEAD~1

(Or replace HEAD~1 with the specific commit hash.)

Would you like help confirming the correct commit before resetting?