How to Undo “Git Commit --Amend” Done Instead of “Git Commit”

If you accidentally used git commit --amend instead of git commit, it means you modified the last commit. To undo this action, you'll need to restore the previous commit state. Here are steps to revert the changes made by git commit --amend.

1. Identify the Previous Commit

Use git reflog to find the commit before the amend. git reflog tracks all changes to the HEAD, which helps in locating the previous state.

git reflog

You should see a list of entries like this:

a1b2c3d HEAD@{0}: commit (amend): Your amended commit message
e4f5g6h HEAD@{1}: commit: Your original commit message
...

Here, a1b2c3d is the SHA of the amended commit, and e4f5g6h is the SHA of the original commit.

2. Reset to the Original Commit

Once you've identified the SHA of the original commit (e4f5g6h in this example), you can reset your branch to that commit.

git reset --hard e4f5g6h

3. Recover Uncommitted Changes (if needed)

If you had changes that were staged or modified before the git commit --amend and you want to recover them:

1. Check the reflog to identify the SHA where you had the desired changes.

2. Create a temporary branch from that SHA (optional, for safety):

    

   Copied!

   git checkout -b temp-branch a1b2c3d
   

3. Cherry-pick the commit to your current branch:

    

   Copied!

   git checkout your-current-branch
   git cherry-pick a1b2c3d
   

Alternatively, if you know the changes are lost after the reset, you can use git reset --soft to avoid losing any uncommitted changes:

git reset --soft e4f5g6h

This command keeps your changes in the staging area, allowing you to commit them again correctly.

Summary

1. View the reflog to find the original commit SHA.
2. Reset your branch to that commit using git reset --hard.
3. Optionally, recover uncommitted changes using git cherry-pick or git reset --soft.

By following these steps, you can effectively undo an accidental git commit --amend and restore your repository to the correct state.

Got an article suggestion? Let us know

Explore more

Git

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.