How to Roll Back (reset) a Git Repository to a Particular Commit?

While working on Git, developers make changes in their project files and commit them to the Git repository for saving purposes. However, sometimes they want to discard those changes and roll back to the desired commit. For this purpose, Git allows them to reset the HEAD pointer of the Git repository to a particular commit.

This guide will demonstrate the method to roll back/reset a Git repository to a specific commit.

How to Roll Back/Reset a Git Repository to a Specific Commit?

To reset a Git repository to the desired commit, follow the provided steps:

Redirect to the local repository.
View commits history.
Choose a particular commit and its copy SHA-hash.
Run the “git reset –hard <commit-id>” command.
Verify changes.

Step 1: Switch to Git Directory

First, type out the below-provided command to redirect to a desired local directory:

$ cd "C:\Git\Repo2"

Step 2: Check Git Commit History

Then, view the current position of HEAD by checking the log history using the “git log” command:

$ git log --oneline

The below screenshot indicates that the HEAD is pointing to the “FileD added” commit. Now, choose and copy the SHA-hash value of the commit that is required to reset. For instance, we have selected the “Files added” commit, whose hash value is “9bd11a3”:

Step 3: Reset to Particular Commit

Now, execute the “git reset –hard” command along with the copied commit hash and move the HEAD pointer to it:

$ git reset --hard 9bd11a3

Here, the “–hard” option is used to roll back to the desired commit:

Step 4: Verify Git Log

Lastly, view the commit history to check the current position of HEAD:

$ git log --oneline

In the below-given screenshot, it can be observed that the HEAD is now pointing to the specified “9bd11a3” commit:

We have explained the procedure of rolling back a Git repository to a desired Git commit.

Conclusion

To roll back/reset a Git repository to the specific commit, first, move to the local Git directory. Then, view the commit history and select the desired commit. Lastly, run the “git reset –hard <commit-id>” command to roll back the Git repository to the desired commit. This guide demonstrated the easiest way to reset a Git repository to a particular commit.