Lesson 19 / 28

git reset: soft, mixed, hard

Move a branch backward with git reset --soft, --mixed and --hard and know how much each one discards.

The three flavors

--soft keeps changes staged, --mixed (default) keeps them unstaged, --hard discards them entirely.

git reset --soft HEAD~1    # undo commit, keep changes staged
git reset HEAD~1           # undo commit, keep changes unstaged
git reset --hard HEAD~1    # undo commit AND discard changes

--hard is destructive

git reset --hard permanently deletes uncommitted work. Double-check git status before running it — there's no confirmation prompt.

Quick check: Which reset mode discards changes entirely?

--soft
--hard
--mixed
--keep

Answer

--hard — --hard resets both the commit history and the working directory, deleting uncommitted work.