gitfileversion-controldvcsundo

Undo working copy modifications of one file in Git


After the last commit, I modified a bunch of files in my working copy, but I want to undo the changes to one of those files, as in reset it to the same state as the most recent commit.

However, I only want to undo the working copy changes of just that one file alone, nothing else with it.

How do I do that?


Solution

  • You can use

    git checkout -- file
    

    You can do it without the -- (as suggested by nimrodm), but if the filename looks like a branch or tag (or other revision identifier), it may get confused, so using -- is best.

    You can also check out a particular version of a file:

    git checkout v1.2.3 -- file         # tag v1.2.3
    git checkout stable -- file         # stable branch
    git checkout origin/master -- file  # upstream master
    git checkout HEAD -- file           # the version from the most recent commit
    git checkout HEAD^ -- file          # the version before the most recent commit
    

    More details included based on comments

    First check the the commits of the file

    git log -- <filename>
    

    Then you can run this

    git checkout <sha-reference> -- filename
    

    where the sha-reference is a reference to the sha of a commit, in any form (branch, tag, parent, etc.