How do I discard unstaged changes in Git?
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How to Discard Unstaged Changes in Git
Learn how to effectively discard unstaged changes in your Git working directory using git restore and git checkout, preventing unwanted modifications from being committed.
In Git, managing changes is a fundamental part of version control. Sometimes, you make modifications to files in your working directory that you decide you don't want to keep. These are often referred to as 'unstaged changes' because they haven't been added to the staging area with git add. This article will guide you through the process of discarding these changes, ensuring your working directory reverts to the last committed state for those specific files.
Understanding Unstaged Changes
Before we dive into discarding changes, it's crucial to understand what 'unstaged changes' mean. When you modify a file that Git is tracking, those changes initially reside only in your working directory. Git sees these as modifications but hasn't yet recorded them for the next commit. You can view these changes using git status.
git status
Use git status to see unstaged changes (modified files).
The output of git status will show files under the 'Changes not staged for commit' section, indicating they have been modified but not yet staged.
Discarding Changes with git restore
The modern and recommended way to discard unstaged changes is by using the git restore command. Introduced in Git 2.23, git restore is designed for restoring files in the working tree and is more intuitive than the overloaded git checkout command for this specific task.
git restore <file_name>
Reverts a single file to its last committed state.
git restore file1.txt file2.js
Reverts specific files to their last committed state.
git restore .
Reverts all unstaged changes in the current directory and its subdirectories.
git restore . as it will discard all unstaged changes in your entire repository from the current directory downwards. These changes are typically unrecoverable.The Legacy Method: git checkout
Before git restore, the git checkout command was used to discard unstaged changes. While git restore is now preferred for this specific action, you might still encounter git checkout in older scripts or tutorials. It's important to know that git checkout has multiple responsibilities (switching branches, restoring files, etc.), which can sometimes lead to confusion.
git checkout -- <file_name>
The -- is crucial to distinguish a file path from a branch name.
git restore for discarding changes. It's clearer and less prone to misinterpretation than git checkout for this purpose.
Workflow for discarding unstaged changes
1. Step 1
First, use git status to identify the files with unstaged changes that you want to discard.
2. Step 2
For a single file, execute git restore <file_name> to revert it to its last committed state.
3. Step 3
To discard changes in multiple specific files, list them after git restore, like git restore file1.txt file2.md.
4. Step 4
If you are certain you want to discard all unstaged changes in the current directory and its subdirectories, use git restore . (use with caution!).
5. Step 5
Finally, run git status again to confirm that the changes have been successfully discarded and the working directory is clean for those files.