How do I undo 'git add' before commit?

Question

I mistakenly added files to Git using the command:

git add myfile.txt

I have not yet run git commit. How do I undo this so that these changes will not be included in the commit?

Cloche

Starting with Git v1.8.4, all the answers below that use HEAD or head can now use @ in place of HEAD instead. See this answer (last section) to learn why you can do that. – Henotheism

I made a little summery which shows all ways to unstage a file: stackoverflow.com/questions/6919121/… – Stewardess

If you use Eclipse, it is as simple as unchecking the files in the commit dialogue box – Hollowell

This is a great resource straight from Github: How to undo (almost) anything with Git – Machiavelli

Before you post a new answer, consider there are already 25+ answers for this question. Make sure that your answer contributes what is not among existing answers – Coastward

I always make this work by running git reset <file_name>. For more info be sure to take a look at this article. – Griffey

if readers like to use GUI, you can right-click a file and click reset, or unstage – Abernon

git rm --cached <file> unstages and untracks (marked for removal on next commit) a given file, while git reset HEAD <file> just unstages the file – Chaffin

For people working with large repos, you can also just cancel the git adding process and it'll revert back automatically. – Percolate

@jasonleonhard, that's not a bad link from Github but the OP's scenario is not in there! – Schild

These many answers, yet with contradictions and complex, just for such a simple thing. That is awful – Abrams

Just git restore --staged . – Outstand

Answer 1

To unstage a specific file

git reset <file>

That will remove the file from the current index (the "about to be committed" list) without changing anything else.

To unstage all files from the current change set:

git reset

---

In old versions of Git, the above commands are equivalent to git reset HEAD <file> and git reset HEAD respectively, and will fail if HEAD is undefined (because you haven't yet made any commits in your repository) or ambiguous (because you created a branch called HEAD, which is a stupid thing that you shouldn't do). This was changed in Git 1.8.2, though, so in modern versions of Git you can use the commands above even prior to making your first commit:

"git reset" (without options or parameters) used to error out when you do not have any commits in your history, but it now gives you an empty index (to match non-existent commit you are not even on).

Documentation: git reset

Regularize

Of course, this is not a true undo, because if the wrong git add overwrote a previous staged uncommited version, we can't recover it. I tried to clarify this in my answer below. – Coloratura

git reset HEAD *.ext where ext is the files of the given extension you want to unadd. For me it was *.bmp & *.zip – Bruise

git reset said it undid the changes but when I proceeded to do another git status, they still showed modified – Parr

So the opposite of "add" is "reset"? What about "remove"? – Counterproof

@Jonny, the index (aka staging area) contains all the files, not just changed files. It "starts life" (when you check out a commit or clone a repo) as a copy of all the files in the commit pointed to by HEAD. So if you remove a file from the index (git rm --cached) it means you are preparing to make a commit that deletes that file. git reset HEAD <filename> on the other hand will copy the file from HEAD to the index, so that the next commit won't show any changes being made to that file. – Pani

I just discovered that there is a git reset -p just like git add -p. This is awesome! – Koppel

-p most definitely is awesome, and it's used in a lot of git commands (not just reset and add). But to answer @WeDoTDD.com and @Johnny, git reset by itself just clears whether Git "knows about" the changes; it doesn't clear the changes themselves. To do that you need to do git checkout someFile.txt (for individual files) or git reset --hard (to wipe everything clean). There's no going back from either of these commands though, so be very careful when using them. – Bosson

but 'git reset file' removes other files that had been staged for commit too. not good. – Unsnarl

You actually can recover overwriten previously staged but uncommited changes but not in a userfriendly way and not 100% secure (at least none I had found): goto .git/objects, search for files created at the time of git add you want to recover (61/3AF3... -> object id 613AF3...), then git cat-file -p <object-id> (might be worth it to recover several hours of work but also a lesson to commit more often...) – Irredeemable

Another way to recover changes that were staged but not committed and then overwritten by e.g. another git add is via git fsck --unreachable that will list all unreachable obj, which you can then inspect by git show SHA-1_ID or git fsck --lost-found that will >Write dangling objects into .git/lost-found/commit/ or .git/lost-found/other/, depending on type. See also git fsck --help – Flaxman

As of git 2.23.0, there is now "git restore --staged <file>..." to unstage. See https://mcmap.net/q/12671/-why-there-are-two-ways-to-unstage-a-file-in-git – Triphammer

I have also added some files from a common library to the stage. Since, it is an angular app, so I had to use git reset */commonlib/styles/*.scss to locate all such files and it worked. – Lush

I don't know if I did this right, but git reset <file> seemed to also delete the file from my file system as well, which is obviously not what you want. – Related

why they don't add a command called UNDO, to be used with many commands? I have to learn 200 commands and parameters that i forget after 3 seconds. Somebody should create a friendly version of GIT – Islamize

this worked for me when I am in the same folder as the file and do git reset <fullfilenamewithextension> – Avestan

Answer 2

You want:

git rm --cached <added_file_to_undo>

Reasoning:

When I was new to this, I first tried

git reset .

(to undo my entire initial add), only to get this (not so) helpful message:

fatal: Failed to resolve 'HEAD' as a valid ref.

It turns out that this is because the HEAD ref (branch?) doesn't exist until after the first commit. That is, you'll run into the same beginner's problem as me if your workflow, like mine, was something like:

1. cd to my great new project directory to try out Git, the new hotness
2. git init
3. git add .

4. git status

   ... lots of crap scrolls by ...

   => Damn, I didn't want to add all of that.

5. google "undo git add"

   => find Stack Overflow - yay

6. git reset .

   => fatal: Failed to resolve 'HEAD' as a valid ref.

It further turns out that there's a bug logged against the unhelpfulness of this in the mailing list.

And that the correct solution was right there in the Git status output (which, yes, I glossed over as 'crap)

...
# Changes to be committed:
#   (use "git rm --cached <file>..." to unstage)
...

And the solution indeed is to use git rm --cached FILE.

Note the warnings elsewhere here - git rm deletes your local working copy of the file, but not if you use --cached. Here's the result of git help rm:

--cached Use this option to unstage and remove paths only from the index. Working tree files, whether modified or not, will be left.

I proceed to use

git rm --cached .

to remove everything and start again. Didn't work though, because while add . is recursive, turns out rm needs -r to recurse. Sigh.

git rm -r --cached .

Okay, now I'm back to where I started. Next time I'm going to use -n to do a dry run and see what will be added:

git add -n .

I zipped up everything to a safe place before trusting git help rm about the --cached not destroying anything (and what if I misspelled it).

Sula

Doesn't just "git reset" without . do what you want, or am I missing something? – Armillia

Hah. I followed this same process. Except I gave up and said rm -rf .git, git init because I didn't trust git rm --cached to keep my working copy. It says a little for how git is still overly complex in some places. git unstage should just be a stock standard command, I don't care if I can add it as an alias. – Desquamate

Did this and it deleted all my other existing files - unchanged - from the git backup. Re-adding them makes everything larger and destroys the proper history. Git is totally an unfinished project. – Enthusiastic

in recent versions of git (v1.7.1.1 tested ) git rm -r --cached . works fine – Linneman

If you like git reset, try git reset * instead of git reset . - it un-stages all you previously staged files. – Yolandoyolane

Instead of the dry run, walk through the add with git add -p – Jollification

For me git says git reset HEAD <File>... – Vogul

You also could use git stash/git stash pop to avoid zipping/backing up everything – Kasten

git rm --cached <file> is actually the correct answer, if it is the initial import of <file> into the repository. If you're trying to unstage a change to the file, git reset is the correct answer. People saying that this answer is wrong are thinking of a different question. – Wages

This will actually work, but only on the first commit, where the file didn't exist before, or where the git add command added new files, but not changes to existing files. – Punishment

I certainly feel if this is a totally new repository, removing the .git directory and initialising again is the best way. For cases in a well-used repo where you just accidentally added a single file, git rm --cached <file> seems best although I get a scary delete mode 100644 file after my commit. – Koerlin

according to git status output of git version 1.8.1.4 the correct way to unstage new files is: git reset HEAD <file>... – Trula

just goes to show how unintuitive and convoluted git is. instead of having parallel "undo" commands, you have to find out how to undo them. Like trying to free your leg in quick sand, and then getting your arm stuck, then getting your other arm stuck... every command should be done through GUI, with dropdown menus items for the options... Think of all the UI, productivity gains we've had, but we have this mess of a retro command line interface. It's not like the git GUI programs make this any more intuitive. – Meddlesome

@BarryKelly no it is not the correct answer. What you actually want to do is either git reset to undo all added files or git reset <file> to undo a specific added file. git rm --cached may work on the surface but what actually happens is it removes it from the tracking history as well which is not what you would want to do, unless, you added that file to a gitignore file where that file shouldn't have been tracked in the first place then in that case it would be ok. – Mush

@BarryKelly I tried to edit my comment as I reread yours but I was too late. I missed that part of what you wrote ;). But yeah you're right, that would be another instance to use git rm --cached – Mush

When intially populating a git repository, "git reset" from the top answer doesn't work: failed to resolve HEAD. We added a single file too many to the initial commit. As suggested by this answer, in that case "git rm --cached <file>" works for me. Maybe "git rm --cached ." does more than is intended for some people, but (as suggested by git status), git rm --cached <file> works.... – Simony

Why not just delete the hidden .git folder lol.. and do git init again... (assuming you're making the git repo for the FIRST time and have not done any commits) – Serb

If the files have not yet in index, use git rm --cache <filename>, if the files already in index, but you don't want them to be in this commit, use git reset <filename> – Silversmith

This command CLEARS / DELETES STUFF IN THE INDEX. What the OP and other people actually want is to UNDO THE CHANGES IN THE INDEX and NOT DELETE STUFF. Git reset . is the correct answer. – Andonis

@Meddlesome ...well, once you know what you're doing, it's much easier,...and I find the GUI too bloated and too much mouse movement...so it's a matter of opinion. – Urfa

I just discovered that there is a git reset -p just like git add -p. This is awesome! – Yogini

if it was your first commit Just remove the .git directory and init again. – Bluish

git reset works if you accidentally stage all of your project files before adding your .gitignore. At least it worked for me. I suppose it's harder if you have already pushed to remote. – Photoactinic

Answer 3

If you type:

git status

Git will tell you what is staged, etc., including instructions on how to unstage:

use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage

I find Git does a pretty good job of nudging me to do the right thing in situations like this.

Note: Recent Git versions (1.8.4.x) have changed this message:

(use "git rm --cached <file>..." to unstage)

Ilia

The message will be different depending on whether the added file was already being tracked (the add only saved a new version to the cache - here it will show your message). Elsewhere, if the file was not previously staged, it will display use "git rm --cached <file>..." to unstage – Coloratura

Great! The git reset HEAD <file> one is the only one that will work in case you want to unstage a file delete – Sim

My git version 2.14.3 says git reset HEAD to unstage. – Desmund

Since Git v2.23 the message has changed yet again. It now says git restore --staged <file>. See my answer below for an update. – Vitek

Answer 4

To clarify: git add moves changes from the current working directory to the staging area (index).

This process is called staging. So the most natural command to stage the changes (changed files) is the obvious one:

git stage

git add is just an easier-to-type alias for git stage

Pity there is no git unstage nor git unadd commands. The relevant one is harder to guess or remember, but it is pretty obvious:

git reset HEAD --

We can easily create an alias for this:

git config --global alias.unadd 'reset HEAD --'
git config --global alias.unstage 'reset HEAD --'

And finally, we have new commands:

git add file1
git stage file2
git unadd file2
git unstage file1

Personally I use even shorter aliases:

git a # For staging
git u # For unstaging

Margerymarget

"moves"? This would indicate it has gone from the working directory. That's not the case. – Contradict

Actually, git stage is the alias for git add, which is the historic command, both on Git and other SCM. It has been added in december 2008 with commit 11920d28da in the "Git's git repository", if I can say. – Lycanthrope

I agree, it's very annoying that Linus Torvalds, instead of creating simmetric commands, just created a new word for a different command. For simmetric i mean something like: commit - uncommit; stage-unstage . Or a keyword UNDO that can be used for many commands: git commit X - git UNDO commit x. Seems natural that one has to learn by heart a lot of words. The ones that are used not so often are easily forgotten... and here we all are on this page – Islamize

@Islamize There's also the mess about calling the same thing as cache, index or staging area but these things cannot be changed without breaking backwards compatibility. And similar to Linux kernel, Torvalds seems to prefer to keep any old partially-insane APIs as-is instead of ever breaking any old workflow. Nowadays we also have git restore --staged path/fo/file for this purpose. – Campman

If Git were designed today with the knowledge we now have, we would probably have stage and unstage only to modify the cache/index/staging area which would be called "staging area" in all documentation and user interface. – Campman

@MikkoRantalainen GIT is not that old. Anyway I wonder why nobody creates a kind of envelop for GIT, that calls the primitive commands of GIT under a layer of logical, and easy-to-remember commands. So user can learn those easier commands (example: stage / unstage) and on the background, the git impossible-to-learn commands are executed. And other users can still use the older commands ;) Something similar happens with JavaScript and Typescript – Islamize

Git is used by software developers that are expected to be able to learn new commands. And there are multiple CLI and GUI interfaces for Git but none have been big enough improvement that everybody would be using it. I personally use just command line git with custom aliases + git gui and gitk. For example, I do have git stage and git unstage. – Campman

Answer 5

An addition to the accepted answer, if your mistakenly-added file was huge, you'll probably notice that, even after removing it from the index with 'git reset', it still seems to occupy space in the .git directory.

This is nothing to be worried about; the file is indeed still in the repository, but only as a "loose object". It will not be copied to other repositories (via clone, push), and the space will be eventually reclaimed - though perhaps not very soon. If you are anxious, you can run:

git gc --prune=now

---

Update (what follows is my attempt to clear some confusion that can arise from the most upvoted answers):

So, which is the real undo of git add?

git reset HEAD <file> ?

or

git rm --cached <file>?

Strictly speaking, and if I'm not mistaken: none.

git add cannot be undone - safely, in general.

Let's recall first what git add <file> actually does:

1. If <file> was not previously tracked, git add adds it to the cache, with its current content.

2. If <file> was already tracked, git add saves the current content (snapshot, version) to the cache. In Git, this action is still called add, (not mere update it), because two different versions (snapshots) of a file are regarded as two different items: hence, we are indeed adding a new item to the cache, to be eventually committed later.

In light of this, the question is slightly ambiguous:

I mistakenly added files using the command...

The OP's scenario seems to be the first one (untracked file), we want the "undo" to remove the file (not just the current contents) from the tracked items. If this is the case, then it's ok to run git rm --cached <file>.

And we could also run git reset HEAD <file>. This is in general preferable, because it works in both scenarios: it also does the undo when we wrongly added a version of an already tracked item.

But there are two caveats.

First: There is (as pointed out in the answer) only one scenario in which git reset HEAD doesn't work, but git rm --cached does: a new repository (no commits). But, really, this a practically irrelevant case.

Second: Be aware that git reset HEAD can't magically recover the previously cached file contents, it just resynchronises it from the HEAD. If our misguided git add overwrote a previous staged uncommitted version, we can't recover it. That's why, strictly speaking, we cannot undo [*].

Example:

$ git init
$ echo "version 1" > file.txt
$ git add file.txt   # First add of file.txt
$ git commit -m 'first commit'
$ echo "version 2" > file.txt
$ git add  file.txt   # Stage (don't commit) "version 2" of file.txt
$ git diff --cached file.txt
-version 1
+version 2
$ echo "version 3" > file.txt
$ git diff  file.txt
-version 2
+version 3
$ git add  file.txt    # Oops we didn't mean this
$ git reset HEAD file.txt  # Undo?
$ git diff --cached file.txt  # No dif, of course. stage == HEAD
$ git diff file.txt   # We have irrevocably lost "version 2"
-version 1
+version 3

Of course, this is not very critical if we just follow the usual lazy workflow of doing 'git add' only for adding new files (case 1), and we update new contents via the commit, git commit -a command.

---

^{* (Edit: the above is practically correct, but still there can be some slightly hackish/convoluted ways for recovering changes that were staged, but not committed and then overwritten - see the comments by Johannes Matokic and iolsmit)}

Coloratura

Strictly speaking there is a way to recover an already staged file that was replaced with git add. As you mention git add creates an git object for that file that will become a loose object not only when removing the file completely but also when being overwritten with new content. But there is no command to automatically recover it. Instead the file has to be identified and extracted manually or with tools written only for this case (libgit2 will allow this). But this will only pay out if the file is very important and big and could not be rebuild by editing the previous version. – Selina

To correct myself: Once the loose object file is found (use meta-data like creation date/time) git cat-file could be used to recover its content. – Selina

Another way to recover changes that were staged but not committed and then overwritten by e.g. another git add is via git fsck --unreachable that will list all unreachable obj, which you can then inspect by git show SHA-1_ID or git fsck --lost-found that will >Write dangling objects into .git/lost-found/commit/ or .git/lost-found/other/, depending on type. See also git fsck --help – Flaxman

@Flaxman How can a git add overwrite a change that was staged but not committed? If I created a file a.txt and it had '1' as it's content, how can git add make it have '2' or sth else as it's content? Just looking for an explanation – Lansquenet

@FilipSavic If you add the same file multiple times, without committing. E.g. echo 1 > a.txt followed by git add a.txt - do not commit yet - echo 2 > a.txt followed by git add a.txt; now commit e.g. git commit -m "create unreachable blob" and run git fsck --unreachable – Flaxman

Ohh! Overwritten in the index, not in the file itself :D Alright, thank you! – Lansquenet

Answer 6

Undo a file which has already been added is quite easy using Git. For resetting myfile.txt, which have already been added, use:

git reset HEAD myfile.txt

Explanation:

After you staged unwanted file(s), to undo, you can do git reset. Head is head of your file in the local and the last parameter is the name of your file.

I have created the steps in the image below in more details for you, including all steps which may happen in these cases:

Climb

This really makes it clear Alireza but it would be better if you used markup instead of an image. With judicious use of highlight, code blocks and white space, you can make it look just as clear but with the advantage that users can copy paste. – Schild

Worked for me I did a "git add ." due to which unnecessary files were also added . I removed the unnecessary ones by "git reset HEAD <file name>" – Suggestive

Answer 7

Git has commands for every action imaginable, but it needs extensive knowledge to get things right and because of that it is counter-intuitive at best...

What you did before:

• Changed a file and used git add ., or git add <file>.

What you want:

• Remove the file from the index, but keep it versioned and left with uncommitted changes in working copy:

  git reset HEAD <file>
  

• Reset the file to the last state from HEAD, undoing changes and removing them from the index:

  # Think `svn revert <file>` IIRC.
  git reset HEAD <file>
  git checkout <file>
  
  # If you have a `<branch>` named like `<file>`, use:
  git checkout -- <file>
  

  This is needed since git reset --hard HEAD won't work with single files.

• Remove <file> from index and versioning, keeping the un-versioned file with changes in working copy:

  git rm --cached <file>
  

• Remove <file> from working copy and versioning completely:

  git rm <file>
  

Woodpecker

I can't under stand the difference of 'git reset head <file>' and 'git rm --cached <file>. Could you explain it? – Idolum

@Idolum files are either 'known' to git (changes in them are being tracked.), or they are not 'versioned'. reset head undoes your current changes, but the file is still being monitored by git. rm --cached takes the file out of versioning, so git no longer checks it for changes (and also removes eventually indexed present changes, told to git by the prior add), but the changed file will be kept in your working copy, that is in you file folder on the HDD. – Woodpecker

The difference is git reset HEAD <file> is temporary - the command will be applied to the next commit only, but git rm --cached <file> will unstage untill it gets added again with git add <file>. Also, git rm --cached <file> means if you push that branch to the remote, anyone pulling the branch will get the file ACTUALLY deleted from their folder. – Vergievergil

just what i searched git checkout -- <file> thanx ! – Tiebout

Answer 8

git rm --cached . -r

will "un-add" everything you've added from your current directory recursively

Medicare

I wasn't looking to un-add everything, just ONE specific file. – Cloche

Also helpful if you don't have any previous commits. In absence of previous commit, git reset HEAD <file> would say fatal: Failed to resolve 'HEAD' as a valid ref. – Mccants

No, this adds a deletion of everything in your current directory. Very different to just unstaging changes. – Serotherapy

Answer 9

Run

git gui

and remove all the files manually or by selecting all of them and clicking on the unstage from commit button.

Sheronsherourd

Yes I understand that. I only wanted to implicitly suggest that your indicate that on your answer like "You can use git-gui...." :) – Bonnett

It says, "git-gui: command not found". I'm not sure if this works. – Aeriel

Wow, this is much simple then doing command lines which you don't understood. This is definitely recommended for a beginner like me. Thanks for writing this up! – Antistrophe

git: 'gui' is not a git command. See 'git --help'. – Bekelja

Answer 10

The question is not clearly posed. The reason is that git add has two meanings:

1. adding a new file to the staging area, then undo with git rm --cached file.
2. adding a modified file to the staging area, then undo with git reset HEAD file.

If in doubt, use

git reset HEAD file

Because it does the expected thing in both cases.

Warning: if you do git rm --cached file on a file that was modified (a file that existed before in the repository), then the file will be removed on git commit! It will still exist in your file system, but if anybody else pulls your commit, the file will be deleted from their work tree.

git status will tell you if the file was a new file or modified:

On branch master
Changes to be committed:
  (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)

    new file:   my_new_file.txt
    modified:   my_modified_file.txt

Unchartered

+1. An extraordinary number of highly-upvoted answers and comments on this page are just flat-out wrong about the behaviour of git rm --cached somefile. I hope this answer makes its way up the page to a prominent position where it can protect newbies from being misled by all the false claims. – Serotherapy

one of the best answers on here, sadly it is quite low on the list – Paulpaula

Answer 11

As per many of the other answers, you can use git reset

BUT:

I found this great little post that actually adds the Git command (well, an alias) for git unadd: see git unadd for details or..

Simply,

git config --global alias.unadd "reset HEAD"

Now you can

git unadd foo.txt bar.txt

Alternatively / directly:

git reset HEAD foo.txt bar.txt

Oyster

How do I undo git add before commit? You just git unadd. This is the real answer 💯 – Chokecherry

Answer 12

git reset filename.txt

will remove a file named filename.txt from the current index (also called the “staging area”, which is where changes “about to be committed” are saved), without changing anything else (the working directory is not overwritten).

Konstantine

Some git doc is wrong and terminology is inconsistent & ambiguous. man git "Reset, restore and revert", supposedly explains these 3 similar overlapping commands (proliferation of commands indicates poor command structure in the first place), says git reset "changes commit history" yet here it doesn't? It also says git restore "does not update your branch". If nothing is changed what on earth is the command doing? What does "branch" actually mean? And here in your comment what does "anything else" mean? Sometimes people use an assumed context and following the advice can hurt. – Schild

Answer 13

2019 update

As pointed out by others in related questions (see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), you can now unstage a single file with:

git restore --staged <file>

and unstage all files (from the root of the repo) with:

git restore --staged .

Notes

git restore was introduced in July 2019 and released in version 2.23.
With the --staged flag, it restores the content of the index (what is asked here).

When running git status with staged uncommitted file(s), this is now what Git suggests to use to unstage file(s) (instead of git reset HEAD <file> as it used to prior to v2.23).

Vitek

Thanks for the updated answer. Can you detail how git restore --staged . differs from git reset .? – Antre

Does this thread answer your question @DanDascalescu? – Vitek

Answer 14

If you're on your initial commit and you can't use git reset, just declare "Git bankruptcy" and delete the .git folder and start over

Stakhanovism

One tip is to copy your .git/config file if you have added remote origin, before deleting the folder. – Metalliferous

@ChrisJohnsen comment is spot on. Sometimes, you want to commit all files except one: git add -A && git rm --cached EXCLUDEFILE && git commit -m 'awesome commit' (This also works when there's no previous commits, re Failed to resolve 'HEAD' problem) – Syreetasyria

Answer 15

You can unstage or undo using the git command or GUI Git.

Single file

git reset File.txt

Multiple files

git reset File1.txt File2.txt File3.txt

Example

Suppose you have added Home.js, ListItem.js, Update.js by mistake,

and want to undo/reset =>

git reset src/components/home/Home.js src/components/listItem/ListItem.js src/components/update/Update.js

The same example using Git GUI

git gui

Opens a window. Uncheck your files from Staged changes (will commit)

Iain

If you decide to answer an older question that has well established and correct answers, adding a new answer late in the day may not get you any credit. If you have some distinctive new information, or you're convinced the other answers are all wrong, by all means add a new answer, but 'yet another answer' giving the same basic information a long time after the question was asked usually won't earn you much credit. You've added 'pretty pictures' — I'm not convinced they're all that beneficial. They'd be illegible if I was using a cell phone to read this answer. – Genevieve

I like how your screenshots are shouting to you that you should use git restore --staged <file>... rather than the solution you are giving XD – Myall

Answer 16

Use git add -i to remove just-added files from your upcoming commit. Example:

Adding the file you didn't want:

$ git add foo
$ git status
# On branch master
# Changes to be committed:
#   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
#       new file:   foo
#
# Untracked files:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
# [...]#

Going into interactive add to undo your add (the commands typed at git here are "r" (revert), "1" (first entry in the list revert shows), 'return' to drop out of revert mode, and "q" (quit):

$ git add -i
           staged     unstaged path
  1:        +1/-0      nothing foo

*** Commands ***
  1: [s]tatus     2: [u]pdate     3: [r]evert     4: [a]dd untracked
  5: [p]atch      6: [d]iff       7: [q]uit       8: [h]elp
What now> r
           staged     unstaged path
  1:        +1/-0      nothing [f]oo
Revert>> 1
           staged     unstaged path
* 1:        +1/-0      nothing [f]oo
Revert>> 
note: foo is untracked now.
reverted one path

*** Commands ***
  1: [s]tatus     2: [u]pdate     3: [r]evert     4: [a]dd untracked
  5: [p]atch      6: [d]iff       7: [q]uit       8: [h]elp
What now> q
Bye.
$

That's it! Here's your proof, showing that "foo" is back on the untracked list:

$ git status
# On branch master
# Untracked files:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
# [...]
#       foo
nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)
$

Pail

Answer 17

Here's a way to avoid this vexing problem when you start a new project:

• Create the main directory for your new project.
• Run git init.
• Now create a .gitignore file (even if it's empty).
• Commit your .gitignore file.

Git makes it really hard to do git reset if you don't have any commits. If you create a tiny initial commit just for the sake of having one, after that you can git add -A and git reset as many times as you want in order to get everything right.

Another advantage of this method is that if you run into line-ending troubles later and need to refresh all your files, it's easy:

• Check out that initial commit. This will remove all your files.
• Then check out your most recent commit again. This will retrieve fresh copies of your files, using your current line-ending settings.

Waldheim

Confirmed! Tried a git reset after a git add . and git was complaining about corrupt HEAD. Following your advice, I could git add & reset back and forth with no problems :) – Exactitude

The second part works, but it is a bit clumsy. How line endings are handled, depends on autocrlf value... This won't work in every project, depending the settings. – Woodpecker

This answer was reasonable at the time it was posted, but is now obsolete; git reset somefile and git reset both work prior to making the first commit, now. This has been the case since several Git releases back. – Serotherapy

Answer 18

Note that if you fail to specify a revision then you have to include a separator. Example from my console:

git reset <path_to_file>
fatal: ambiguous argument '<path_to_file>': unknown revision or path not in the working tree.
Use '--' to separate paths from revisions

git reset -- <path_to_file>
Unstaged changes after reset:
M    <path_to_file>

(Git version 1.7.5.4)

Pollard

I tried git reset <path> and it works just fine without a separator. I'm also using git 1.9.0. Maybe it doesn't work in older versions? – Henotheism

Answer 19

Maybe Git has evolved since you posted your question.

$> git --version
git version 1.6.2.1

Now, you can try:

git reset HEAD .

This should be what you are looking for.

Woodhouse

Sure, but then you have the followup question of how one should unadd one of two (or more) files added. The "git reset" manual does mention that "git reset <paths>" is the opposite of "git add <paths>", however. – Pail

Answer 20

To remove new files from the staging area (and only in case of a new file), as suggested above:

git rm --cached FILE

Use rm --cached only for new files accidentally added.

Tigrinya

Mind that the --cached is a really important part here. – Margerymarget

-1; no, this doesn't un-stage the file, it stages a deletion of the file (without actually deleting it from your work tree). – Serotherapy

Answer 21

To reset every file in a particular folder (and its subfolders), you can use the following command:

git reset *

Abominable

Actually, this does not reset every file because * uses shell expansion and it ignores dotfiles (and dot-directories). – Agio

You can run git status to see anything remaining and reset it manually i.e. git reset file. – Abominable

Answer 22

Use the * command to handle multiple files at a time:

git reset HEAD *.prj
git reset HEAD *.bmp
git reset HEAD *gdb*

etc.

Bruise

Mind that * will usually not include dotfiles or 'dot-directories' unless you explicitly specify .* or .*.prj – Agio

* is not a command. It's a wildcard. – Antre

Answer 23

Just type git reset it will revert back and it is like you never typed git add . since your last commit. Make sure you have committed before.

Extraneous

As it happens, there was a last commit... but I was specifically asking about removing a single file from the commit, not every file from the commit. – Cloche

What does this answer provide in addition to the top answer? – Antre

Answer 24

Suppose I create a new file, newFile.txt:

Suppose I add the file accidentally, git add newFile.txt:

Now I want to undo this add, before commit, git reset newFile.txt:

Myriad

Suppose I am at 1st pic meaning meaning I have not even did "git.add". Also, I not at all want all this change. I mean when I do git status, it should not show any red files. I mean it should be in sync as if there was not a single file altered since the last git push. how to achieve that. – Oboe

SO suppose you are just at step first. And you want to get rid of all the changes you have done which is making "newFile.txt" to come up as red. – Oboe

When I do git status. I should not see any change at all. All the red files should get reverted. – Oboe

Hi, I think your question is how to remove untracked files from the current tree. For that, you can use "git clean -f -d". This will remove untracked directories as well. – Myriad

If you don't want to delete the untracked files, just ignore "-f" flag. – Myriad

It did not work. Suppose I did a git push. Now if I add a single line in my code and check git status. It will show a file in Red colour. Suppose I do not want that one line change at all. One option is I can do cntrl + z. But I want git to do that for me. I want my local project to get in sync with the master repo. I mean when I do "git status" then I should see message as "Its in sync with the master". And when I open my code I should have a message like "some external source is making changes" and when I say "Yes" to that prompt then the one line change that I had made shold be gone. – Oboe

basically I want a git command which will revert all the changes which is making the git status to show "red files" – Oboe

So I made a change to a file. I did not do anything else. NO git command at all (no git push not even git add or git commit). But now I want a git command which will revert those changes in my local repo. – Oboe

In a more technical terms "How to revert the file changes made in local repo which has not been put in the staging area" – Oboe

Didn't you try "git checkout file_name". Also, you can stash the changes by using "git stash". – Myriad

Git reset without Head uses the current staged files. Use git reset head to specified a different commit. Like git reset Head~2 to go back to a previous commits. 2 is number of commits – Immaterialize

Answer 25

For a specific file:

• git reset my_file.txt
• git checkout my_file.txt

For all added files:

• git reset .
• git checkout .

Note: checkout changes the code in the files and moves to the last updated (committed) state. reset doesn't change the codes; it just resets the header.

Margarite

Please explain the difference between git reset <file> and git checkout <file>. – Adjectival

reset doesn't change the file, just put it away from the stage (=index, where it was put by git add) – Outlook

checkout change the codes in file and move to the last updated state. reset doesn't change the codes it just reset the header. As example, reset use for added or committed files resetting before push and checkout use for back to the last updated/committed stage before git add. – Margarite

reset = remove the file from stage however changes will still be there. checkout = gets the updated file from the repository and will overrides the current file – Ingeringersoll

Answer 26

To undo git add, use:

git reset filename

Gambeson

How is this answer any better than the top one, which was given 8 years earlier? @PeterMortensen, you edited this - why not flag for deletion as a duplicate? – Antre

Answer 27

There is also interactive mode:

git add -i

Choose option 3 to un add files. In my case I often want to add more than one file, and with interactive mode you can use numbers like this to add files. This will take all but 4: 1, 2, 3, and 5

To choose a sequence, just type 1-5 to take all from 1 to 5.

Git staging files

Charmeuse

"I'm surprised that no one mention interactive mode" - they did: https://mcmap.net/q/12972/-how-do-i-undo-39-git-add-39-before-commit – Serotherapy

Answer 28

git add myfile.txt # This will add your file into the to-be-committed list

Quite opposite to this command is,

git reset HEAD myfile.txt  # This will undo it.

so, you will be in the previous state. Specified will be again in untracked list (previous state).

It will reset your head with that specified file. so, if your head doesn't have it means, it will simply reset it.

Viki

Answer 29

This command will unstash your changes:

git reset HEAD filename.txt

You can also use

git add -p 

to add parts of files.

Mannikin

Answer 30

git reset filename.txt  

Will remove a file named filename.txt from the current index, the "about to be committed" area, without changing anything else.

Witchhunt

git reset [file name] ex : git reset src/main/java/com/dao/ImportCsvDataDaoImpl.java – Woolgathering

Answer 31

In Sourcetree you can do this easily via the GUI. You can check which command Sourcetree uses to unstage a file.

I created a new file and added it to Git. Then I unstaged it using the Sourcetree GUI. This is the result:

Unstaging files [08/12/15 10:43] git -c diff.mnemonicprefix=false -c core.quotepath=false -c credential.helper=sourcetree reset -q -- path/to/file/filename.java

Sourcetree uses reset to unstage new files.

Saturnian

Yes, the same technique can be used with TortoiseGit, getting the Git commands for the common use cases. – Johniejohnna

Answer 32

If you want to revert the last commit but still want to keep the changes locally that were made in the commit, use this command:

git reset HEAD~1 --mixed

Handling

Answer 33

One of the most intuitive solutions is using Sourcetree.

You can just drag and drop files from staged and unstaged

Theurer

Answer 34

I would use git restore --staged . or git restore --staged <filename>

You can also use git rm --cached, however, the git rm command should be ideally used for already tracked files.

Canto

Answer 35

The first time I had this problem, I found this post here and from the first answer I learned that I should just do git reset <filename>. It worked fine.

Eventually, I happened to have a few subfolders inside my main git folder. I found it easy to just do git add . to add all files inside the subfolders and then git reset the few files that I did not want to add.

Nowadays I have lots of files and subfolders. It is tedious to git reset one-by-one but still easier to just git add . first, then reset the few heavy/unwanted but useful files and folders.

I've found the following method (which is not recorded here or here) relatively easy. I hope it will be helpful:

Let's say that you have the following situation:

Folder/SubFolder1/file1.txt
Folder/SubFolder2/fig1.png
Folder/SubFolderX/fig.svg
Folder/SubFolder3/<manyfiles>
Folder/SubFolder4/<file1.py, file2.py, ..., file60.py, ...>

You want to add all folders and files but not fig1.png, and not SubFolderX, and not file60.py and the list keeps growing ...

First, make/create a bash shell script and give it a name. Say, git_add.sh:

Then add all the paths to all folders and files you want to git reset preceded by git reset -- . You can easily copy-paste the paths into the script git_add.sh as your list of files grows. The git_add.sh script should look like this:

#!/bin/bash

git add .
git reset -- Folder/SubFolder2/fig1.png
git reset -- Folder/SubFolderX
git reset -- Folder/SubFolder4/file60.py

#!/bin/bash is important. Then do source git_add.sh to run it. After that, you can do git commit -m "some comment", and then git push -u origin master if you have already set up Bitbucket/Github.

Disclaimer: I've only tested this in Linux.

---

If you have lots of files and folders that you always retain in your local git repository but you don't want git to track changes when you do git add ., say video and data files, you must learn how to use .gitignore. Maybe from here.

Eleventh

If you source the file, it does not need to be executable. – Genevieve

Have you considered using a .gitignore file to prevent the files and directories that should not be added from being added? – Genevieve

Answer 36

You can using this command after git version 2.23 :

git restore --staged <filename>

Or, you can using this command:

git reset HEAD <filename>

Underskirt

Welcome to Stack Overflow. If you decide to answer an older question that has well established and correct answers, adding a new answer late in the day may not get you any credit. If you have some distinctive new information, or you're convinced the other answers are all wrong, by all means add a new answer, but 'yet another answer' giving the same basic information a long time after the question was asked usually won't earn you much credit. – Genevieve

Answer 37

The git reset command helps you to modify either the staging area or the staging area and working tree. Git's ability to craft commits exactly like you want means that you sometimes need to undo changes to the changes you staged with git add.

You can do that by calling git reset HEAD <file to change>. You have two options to get rid of changes completely. git checkout HEAD <file(s) or path(s)> is a quick way to undo changes to your staging area and working tree.

Be careful with this command, however, because it removes all changes to your working tree. Git doesn't know about those changes since they've never been committed. There's no way to get those changes back once you run this command.

Another command at your disposal is git reset --hard. It is equally destructive to your working tree - any uncommitted changes or staged changes are lost after running it. Running git reset -hard HEAD does the same thing as git checkout HEAD. It just does not require a file or path to work.

You can use --soft with git reset. It resets the repository to the commit you specify and stages all of those changes. Any changes you have already staged are not affected, nor are the changes in your working tree.

Finally, you can use --mixed to reset the working tree without staging any changes. This also unstages any changes that are staged.

Stacked

Answer 38

Adding new information. My git version is 2.32.1, and the recommended way of achieving this is now

git restore --staged <file>...

This is recommended via the output of

git status

Kick

This Git Tower tutorial has a nice explanation for anyone looking for more details. – Airfoil