Revert

It is used to undo the changes introduced by a specific commit by creating a new commit that reverses those changes. Unlike git reset, which can alter commit history, git revert is safe for public repositories and works by adding a new commit that undoes the effect of an earlier commit, leaving the history intact.

Why Use git revert?

• Preserve history: It doesn’t rewrite history, unlike git reset. Instead, it creates a new commit that effectively undoes previous changes.

• Safe for shared branches: Since it doesn’t alter the commit history, it is useful when working on shared branches with others.

• Granular undoing: You can undo specific commits in a branch without affecting others.

Example

Let’s assume you have the following commit history in your main branch:

A --- B --- C --- D  (main)

Where:

• A → B → C → D are commits in the history.
• Commit D has a bug that you need to undo.

Now, instead of resetting to C and rewriting history, you can revert commit D to create a new commit that undoes the changes in D.

Steps

1. Revert a Single Commit

Suppose the commit hash of D is abcd1234. To revert the changes in commit D, you run:

git revert abcd1234

What happens now:

• Git creates a new commit (E) that undoes the changes introduced by D.
• Your new commit history will look like this:

A --- B --- C --- D --- E  (main)

Where:

• E is the new commit that undoes the changes made in D.

2. Revert with Conflict Resolution

Sometimes, reverting a commit can cause conflicts (e.g., if the changes in D conflict with the code in later commits). Git will prompt you to resolve the conflicts manually:

1. Resolve the conflicts in the conflicted files.

2. Stage the resolved files:

git add <file1> <file2>

3. Complete the revert process:

git add <file1> <file2>

3. Revert Multiple Commits

To revert multiple commits, you can use a range of commits. For example, if you want to revert commits C and D:

git revert C^..D

This will revert all changes from commit C through D inclusively.

Revert and Skip Commit (if needed)

If you don't want to revert a specific commit in the middle of a series of commits, you can use the --skip option:

git revert --skip

This will skip over a problematic commit during the revert process, leaving it unchanged.

Commands

• git revert <commit> – Creates a new commit that undoes the changes from the specified commit.
• git revert HEAD – Reverts the latest commit.
• git revert HEAD~n – Reverts the commit that is n commits before the latest commit.
• git revert --no-commit <commit> (-n) – Applies changes from the commit but does not create a new commit.
• git revert --no-edit <commit> – Reverts a commit without opening the commit message editor.
• git revert --continue – Continues the revert process after resolving conflicts.
• git revert --abort – Aborts the revert operation if conflicts arise.
• git revert -m <parent-number> <merge-commit> – Reverts a merge commit by specifying which parent to keep.

git revert VS git reset

Feature	git revert	git reset
History	Adds a new commit that undoes changes	Removes commits or changes the history
Commit History	Leaves commit history unchanged	Rewrites history (may require --force)
Use Case	Undo a commit safely (on public branches)	Undo recent commits locally