How to unadd or uncommit files in Git
Occasionally, developers will mistakenly git add or git commit files before pushing to remote. Luckily, there are commands that remediate the situation.
How to unadd a file
Unadding a specific file before a commit:
1git reset <file>How to unadd all files
Unadding all files before a commit:
1git resetHow to uncommit the last commit
If the last commit needs to be uncommitted:
1git reset --soft HEAD~1The command reads as “undo the last committed changes and preserve the files”. If the files do not need to be preserved, --hard may be used.
At this point, the files may be unadded if desired.
Aliasing
Aliases allow for ease-of-use in daily workflows:
1git config --global alias.unadd 'reset HEAD --'
2git config --global alias.uncommit 'reset --soft HEAD~1'Usage:
1> git add example.txt
2> git status
3On branch main
4Your branch is up to date with 'origin/main'.
5
6Changes to be committed:
7 (use "git restore --staged <file>..." to unstage)
8 modified: example.txt
9
10> git unadd
11Unstaged changes after reset:
12M example.txt
13> git add example.txt
14> git commit -m "add example.txt"
15[main 1eb1b2f] add example.txt
16 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
17 create mode 100644 example.txt
18> git uncommit
19> git unadd
20Unstaged changes after reset:
21M example.txt