How to unadd or uncommit files in Git

By Thomas Taylor | | 2 minutes
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:

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git reset <file>

How to unadd all files

Unadding all files before a commit:

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git reset

How to uncommit the last commit

If the last commit needs to be uncommitted:

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git reset --soft HEAD~1

The 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:

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git config --global alias.unadd 'reset HEAD --'
git config --global alias.uncommit 'reset --soft HEAD~1'

Usage:

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> git add example.txt
> git status
On branch main
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/main'.

Changes to be committed:
  (use "git restore --staged <file>..." to unstage)
	modified:   example.txt

> git unadd
Unstaged changes after reset:
M	example.txt
> git add example.txt
> git commit -m "add example.txt"
[main 1eb1b2f] add example.txt
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 example.txt
> git uncommit
> git unadd
Unstaged changes after reset:
M	example.txt