How to undo a git merge with conflicts

Question

I am on branch mybranch1. mybranch2 is forked from mybranch1 and changes were made in mybranch2.

Then, while on mybranch1, I have done git merge --no-commit mybranch2 It shows there were conflicts while merging.

Now I want do discard everything (the merge command) so that mybranch1 is back to what it was before. I have no idea how do I go about this.

Solution 1

Latest Git:

git merge --abort

This attempts to reset your working copy to whatever state it was in before the merge. That means that it should restore any uncommitted changes from before the merge, although it cannot always do so reliably. Generally you shouldn't merge with uncommitted changes anyway.

Prior to version 1.7.4:

git reset --merge

This is older syntax but does the same as the above.

Prior to version 1.6.2:

git reset --hard

which removes all uncommitted changes, including the uncommitted merge. Sometimes this behaviour is useful even in newer versions of Git that support the above commands.

Solution 2

Actually, it is worth noticing that git merge --abort is only equivalent to git reset --merge given that MERGE_HEAD is present. This can be read in the git help for merge command.

git merge --abort # is equivalent to git reset --merge when MERGE_HEAD is present.

After a failed merge, when there is no MERGE_HEAD, the failed merge can be undone with git reset --merge but not necessarily with git merge --abort, so they are not only old and new syntax for the same thing.

Personally I find git reset --merge much more useful in everyday work.

Solution 3

Assuming you are using the latest git,

git merge --abort

Solution 4

If using latest Git,

git merge --abort

else this will do the job in older git versions

git reset --merge

or

git reset --hard

Solution 5

There are two things you can do first undo merge by command

git merge --abort

or

you can go to your previous commit state temporarily by command

git checkout 0d1d7fc32 

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Comments

[Admin]

Ok this doesn't work with 1.7.0.7 :( . got to use reset --hard with it

[Admin]

But for older versions of git this is the way to use

[geomaster]

Thank you, this info was very helpful. I had a merge that started with git stash apply on a wrong branch, and git merge --abort did nothing (no MERGE_HEAD), while git reset --merge did the trick.

[Theodore Murdock]

Sometimes you still need to use git reset --merge even in more recent versions. I've had git merge --abort error out (making no changes) where git reset --merge succeeds (and does the right thing) in git 2.2.1.

[Tom]

I've seen about 10 people saying git merge --abort is the new command for git reset --merge and I ran into the same issue as @geomaster this was super helpful thanks!

[Chef Pharaoh]

I found I needed to do git merge --abort followed by git reset --merge when having automerge conflict from popping my stash.

[yano]

usually git merge --abort works for me, however I found myself in a situation where I checked out in a detached HEAD state, and one of my files had a "both modified" state. I wanted to discard everything and get back to a branch, I had to git reset --hard, git merge --abort told me there was no merge to abort, (MERGE_HEAD missing).

[Kevin Stewart]

Sometimes git merge --abort isn't able to bring you back your previous state, and in that case the "older syntax" git reset --hard does the trick.

[vikramvi]

Got message "fatal: There is no merge to abort (MERGE_HEAD missing)."

[A-S]

For me, with git version 2.31.1, that was released later than this comment so I consider it "latest", only git reset --hard worked, and the rest didn't.