Restoring and reverting files

Introduction to Git

George Boorman

Curriculum Manager, DataCamp

Making an error

Four files in a repo, of which three are added to the staging area and one is committed: report.md, mental health survey.csv, and summary statistics.csv

Reverting files

Restoring a repo to the state prior to the previous commit
git revert
- Reinstates previous versions and makes a commit
- Restores all files updated in the given commit
- a845edcb, ebe93178, etc
- HEAD, HEAD~1, etc

git revert HEAD

Reverting files

git revert HEAD

Text editor showing that the commit

Save: Ctrl + O, then Enter
Exit: Ctrl + X

Reverting files

[main 7d11f79] Revert "Adding fresh data for the survey."
 Date: Tue Jul 30 14:17:56 2024 +0000
 1 file changed, 3 deletions(-)

git revert flags

Avoid opening the text editor
```
git revert --no-edit HEAD
```

Revert without committing (bring files into the staging area)
```
git revert -n HEAD
```

Revert a single file

git revert works on commits, not individual files
To revert a single file:
- git checkout
- Use commit hash or HEAD syntax

git checkout HEAD~1 -- report.md

Checking the checkout

git status

On branch main
Changes to be committed:
  (use "git restore --staged <file>..." to unstage)

        modified:   report.md

Making a commit

git commit -m "Checkout previous version of report.md"

[main daa6c87] Checkout previous version of report.md
 1 file changed, 1 deletion(-)

Unstaging a file

Four files in a repo, of which three are added to the staging area: report.md, mental health survey.csv, and summary statistics.csv

Unstaging a file

Summary statistics is moved from the staging area back to the repo

Unstaging a single file

To unstage a single file:

git restore --staged summary_statistics.csv

Edit the file

git add summary_statistics.csv

git commit -m "Adding age summary statistics"

Unstaging all files

To unstage all files:

git restore --staged

Summary

Command	Result
`git revert HEAD`	Revert all files from a given commit
`git revert HEAD --no-edit`	Revert without opening a text editor
`git revert HEAD -n`	Revert without making a new commit
`git checkout HEAD~1 -- report.md`	Revert a single file from the previous commit
`git restore --staged report.md`	Remove a single file from the staging area
`git restore --staged`	Remove all files from the staging area

Let's practice!

Introduction to Git