git reset soft vs mixed vs hard - Hands-On Comparison

Understanding git reset: soft vs mixed vs hard

📖 Scenario: You are working on a project using Git for version control. Sometimes you want to undo changes but keep some parts of your work safe. Git offers different ways to reset your work: soft, mixed, and hard. Each one affects your files and commits differently.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to use git reset --soft, git reset --mixed, and git reset --hard to undo commits in different ways.

📋 What You'll Learn

Understand what a Git commit is

Know how to check the current commit history

Learn how to reset commits with different options

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Developers often need to undo commits without losing work. Knowing how to use different reset options helps manage code safely.

💼 Career

Understanding git reset options is essential for software developers, DevOps engineers, and anyone working with version control to fix mistakes and manage code history.

1

Set up a Git repository with three commits

Initialize a Git repository and create three commits named commit1, commit2, and commit3 by creating files file1.txt, file2.txt, and file3.txt respectively. Use git init, git add, and git commit -m commands exactly as shown.

Git

# Initialize git repo and create three commits
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use git init to start the repo. Then create files and commit them one by one with the exact commit messages.

2

Set a variable for the commit before the last one

Create a variable called target_commit that stores the commit hash of the second commit (the one with message commit2) using git rev-parse HEAD~1.

Git

git init

echo "Content for file1" > file1.txt
git add file1.txt
git commit -m "commit1"

echo "Content for file2" > file2.txt
git add file2.txt
git commit -m "commit2"

echo "Content for file3" > file3.txt
git add file3.txt
git commit -m "commit3"

# Create variable target_commit for second commit hash
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use git rev-parse HEAD~1 to get the commit before the last one and save it in target_commit.

3

Reset the last commit using git reset --soft

Use git reset --soft $target_commit to move the HEAD to the second commit but keep the changes from the last commit staged.

Git

git init

echo "Content for file1" > file1.txt
git add file1.txt
git commit -m "commit1"

echo "Content for file2" > file2.txt
git add file2.txt
git commit -m "commit2"

echo "Content for file3" > file3.txt
git add file3.txt
git commit -m "commit3"

target_commit=$(git rev-parse HEAD~1)

# Reset last commit softly
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use git reset --soft with the variable target_commit to undo the last commit but keep changes staged.

4

Show the current Git status after soft reset

Run git status to display the current state of the repository after the soft reset.

Git

git init

echo "Content for file1" > file1.txt
git add file1.txt
git commit -m "commit1"

echo "Content for file2" > file2.txt
git add file2.txt
git commit -m "commit2"

echo "Content for file3" > file3.txt
git add file3.txt
git commit -m "commit3"

target_commit=$(git rev-parse HEAD~1)

git reset --soft $target_commit

# Show git status
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use git status to see that the last commit's changes are still staged after the soft reset.