301 — Undoing Changes in Git

Master the art of undoing mistakes in Git. Learn to restore files, unstage changes, undo commits, and navigate Git's safety nets.

Learning Objectives

Restore files to previous states

Unstage changes from the staging area

Undo commits safely with revert

Understand the difference between soft, mixed, and hard resets

Use Git's reflog as a safety net

Step 1

Set up a fresh repository with some initial content to practice undoing changes safely.

mkdir -p ~/git-practice/lesson-301

cd ~/git-practice/lesson-301

git init

echo "# Undoing Changes Practice" > README.md

git add README.md

git commit -m "Initial commit"

We're creating a clean slate with an initial commit. This gives us a starting point to practice various undo operations.

You should have a new repository with one commit containing README.md.