Fixes for Common Git Mistakes

Spelled last commit message wrong

git commit --amend

This will open up your editor and allow you to make a change to that last commit message

Spelling mistake on branch name

We rename this branch in a similar way to how we rename a file with the mv command: by moving it to a new location with the correct name.

git branch -m feature-brunch feature-branch

If you have already pushed this branch, there are a couple of extra steps required. We need to delete the old branch from the remote and push up the new one:

git push origin --delete feature-brunch
git push origin feature-branch

Accidentally committed all changes to the master branch

git branch feature-branch
git reset HEAD~ --hard
git checkout feature-branch

This creates a new branch, then rolls back the master branch to where it was before you made changes, before finally checking out your new branch with all your previous changes intact.

Forgot to add a file to that last commit

Add that missed file then run that amend command.

git add missed-file.txt
git commit --amend

Added a wrong file in the repo

If all you did was stage the file and you haven’t committed it yet, it’s as simple as resetting that staged file:

git reset /assets/img/misty-and-pepper.jpg

If you have gone as far as committing that change, no need to worry. You just need to run an extra step before:

git reset --soft HEAD~1
git reset /assets/img/misty-and-pepper.jpg
rm /assets/img/misty-and-pepper.jpg
git commit

This will undo the commit, remove the image, then add a new commit in its place.

Go back to any point in the past

The following command prints the logs with commit messages and index

git reflog

Go back to any point in the history using following command, replace 

{index} with index from reflog  

git reset HEAD@{index}