How to delete the last n commits on Github and locally?

Question

I'm trying to delete the last 2 commits from one of my GitHub repositories. I've tried as suggested here : git push -f origin HEAD^^:master. It seems that it works, as the last two commits are removed.

Then I deleted them from my local repository with git rebase -i HEAD~2. I remove the lines that are related to those commits, and check with git log that they are correctly removed.

After that, I make some changes in my local repository, make a new commit, and push to GitHub. The problem is that, in my GitHub account, I have the previous two commits that I've tried to delete.

I think the problem is in my local repository, because if I clone my Github repository to my local and make some changes here, when I push a new commit those old commits aren't pushed to GitHub.

Solution 1

To remove the last two commits locally I'd suggest using:

git reset --hard HEAD^^

Rebase is a completely different operation that won't help you here.

Solution 2

If you want to remove the 2 (two) last commits, there is an easy command to do that:

git reset --hard HEAD~2

You can change the 2 for any number of last commits you want to remove.

And to push this change to remote, you need to do a git push with the force (-f) parameter:

git push -f

However, I don't recommend to do any git command with -f or --hard options involved if there are new commits on remote (Github) after this commits that you want to remove. In that case, always use git revert.

Solution 3

The following works for me

git reset HEAD~n

It removes the last n commits from local repo, as HEAD^ removes only one. If you need to remove these changes from remote, you might need to force push as you will be behind remote.

git push -f origin <branch>

Solution 4

To remove the last n commits:

git reset HEAD~n

If you need to remove these changes from remote, you might need to force push as you will be behind remote.

git push -f origin <Branch Name>

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Comments

[Ivan Fernandez]

If you've already pushed this change to a remote repository. You can remove it with git push -f

[user_19]

Can you generalize this for last n number of commits?

[KL-7]

@user_19 you can do things like git reset --hard HEAD^4 or git reset --hard HEAD~4. Though, things might get a bit complicated if your history contains merges. You can find more information about specifying revisions in corresponding section here.

[Gagan Gami]

If I wanted to delete last 7 commits then?? Do I need to put 7 times ^ after HEAD... please clear me

[Captain Hypertext]

I also found the git-reset documentation pretty handy.

[Con Antonakos]

@GaganGami, I think you would do git reset --hard HEAD~7, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Zuhayer Tahir]

Do the changes I made stay?

[Dherik]

@SymfonyUser, no. When you made the hard command, you loose this two commits. If you want to save the changes, create a diff file of these commits before apply the reset.

[mfaani]

@ZuhayerTahir if you want to just undo the committing for last 5 commits then just do git reset HEAD~5 ( don't use hard). This way you'll get your changes in a staged state (ie not committed). For me see this answer.

[Zuhayer Tahir]

@Honey Thank you for your response. I came to same conclusion.

[Carmine Tambascia]

This can lead to the "ambiguous argument 'HEAD^2': unknown revision or path not in the working tree" if the git repository is a fresh one, meaning Head is not yet created(not sure when and how create the Head is done, I though was created with a first comming), for me worked the previous asnwer, that with the ~

[stevec]

Just a heads up, I lost uncommitted work using this approach. Other than that it works.

[iago]

I would add to the git reset HEAD~n a git stash to be again at the same stage after doing the last commit one wants to keep, so it would be possible a git pull from that commit.