How do I undo 'git add' before commit?

Question

I mistakenly added files to Git using the command:

git add myfile.txt

I have not yet run git commit. How do I undo this so that these changes will not be included in the commit?

Answer 1

The first time I had this problem, I found this post here and from the first answer I learned that I should just do git reset <filename>. It worked fine.

Eventually, I happened to have a few subfolders inside my main git folder. I found it easy to just do git add . to add all files inside the subfolders and then git reset the few files that I did not want to add.

Nowadays I have lots of files and subfolders. It is tedious to git reset one-by-one but still easier to just git add . first, then reset the few heavy/unwanted but useful files and folders.

I've found the following method (which is not recorded here or here) relatively easy. I hope it will be helpful:

Let's say that you have the following situation:

Folder/SubFolder1/file1.txt
Folder/SubFolder2/fig1.png
Folder/SubFolderX/fig.svg
Folder/SubFolder3/<manyfiles>
Folder/SubFolder4/<file1.py, file2.py, ..., file60.py, ...>

You want to add all folders and files but not fig1.png, and not SubFolderX, and not file60.py and the list keeps growing ...

First, make/create a bash shell script and give it a name. Say, git_add.sh:

Then add all the paths to all folders and files you want to git reset preceded by git reset -- . You can easily copy-paste the paths into the script git_add.sh as your list of files grows. The git_add.sh script should look like this:

#!/bin/bash

git add .
git reset -- Folder/SubFolder2/fig1.png
git reset -- Folder/SubFolderX
git reset -- Folder/SubFolder4/file60.py

#!/bin/bash is important. Then do source git_add.sh to run it. After that, you can do git commit -m "some comment", and then git push -u origin master if you have already set up Bitbucket/Github.

Disclaimer: I've only tested this in Linux.

---

If you have lots of files and folders that you always retain in your local git repository but you don't want git to track changes when you do git add ., say video and data files, you must learn how to use .gitignore. Maybe from here.

Answer 2

In Sourcetree you can do this easily via the GUI. You can check which command Sourcetree uses to unstage a file.

I created a new file and added it to Git. Then I unstaged it using the Sourcetree GUI. This is the result:

Unstaging files [08/12/15 10:43] git -c diff.mnemonicprefix=false -c core.quotepath=false -c credential.helper=sourcetree reset -q -- path/to/file/filename.java

Sourcetree uses reset to unstage new files.

Answer 3

If you want to revert the last commit but still want to keep the changes locally that were made in the commit, use this command:

git reset HEAD~1 --mixed

Answer 4

One of the most intuitive solutions is using Sourcetree.

You can just drag and drop files from staged and unstaged

Answer 5

I would use git restore --staged . or git restore --staged <filename>

You can also use git rm --cached, however, the git rm command should be ideally used for already tracked files.

Answer 6

You can using this command after git version 2.23 :

git restore --staged <filename>

Or, you can using this command:

git reset HEAD <filename>

Answer 7

The git reset command helps you to modify either the staging area or the staging area and working tree. Git's ability to craft commits exactly like you want means that you sometimes need to undo changes to the changes you staged with git add.

You can do that by calling git reset HEAD <file to change>. You have two options to get rid of changes completely. git checkout HEAD <file(s) or path(s)> is a quick way to undo changes to your staging area and working tree.

Be careful with this command, however, because it removes all changes to your working tree. Git doesn't know about those changes since they've never been committed. There's no way to get those changes back once you run this command.

Another command at your disposal is git reset --hard. It is equally destructive to your working tree - any uncommitted changes or staged changes are lost after running it. Running git reset -hard HEAD does the same thing as git checkout HEAD. It just does not require a file or path to work.

You can use --soft with git reset. It resets the repository to the commit you specify and stages all of those changes. Any changes you have already staged are not affected, nor are the changes in your working tree.

Finally, you can use --mixed to reset the working tree without staging any changes. This also unstages any changes that are staged.

Answer 8

Adding new information. My git version is 2.32.1, and the recommended way of achieving this is now

git restore --staged <file>...

This is recommended via the output of

git status