Get previous project version

Question

My git log was showing several project commits in my projects. I'm using only master branch. I have done git checkout to first commit. I was expecting that my directory will be changed to state when it was in during first commit. It not happened. How to achieve that?

Now git console shows that I'm in first commit by showing ((b266cf..)) instead of (master) in command prompt. And git log shows that there is only one commit - first one? Where others are gone? How to get back to state where all others commits are visible?

Answer 1

git log shows that there is only one commit - first one?

That is expected: if you checkout the first commit, git log will show all commits accessible since that checked out commit. Since it is the first one, git log only shows this one.

"git checkout master" brings back (master) in command prompt, but "git log" still shows only first commit. Where are others?

If somehow master is not properly restored, check the output of git reflog.

Any commit you have done in that repo is listed in git reflog: you will be able to reset master to the commit you want.

git checkout master
git reset --hard <another_commit_sha1>

Or git branch -f master new-tip-commit (might not work if master is the currently checked out branch)