On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 03:52:14AM -0700, Jakub Narebski wrote: > "Geoff Russell" <geoffrey.russell@xxxxxxxxx> writes: > > > This should be simple! I have a series of commits: > > > > 1---2---3---4---5 > > > > I want to go back to 3 but not branch, so I want > > > > 1---2---3---4---5---3 > > > > ? > > > > git checkout 3... > > > > gets me the commit on a detached head, but I don't know how to put this back > > as the HEAD. > > Lets check what git does in each of scenarios. Let's assume that > current branch is named 'master'. > > At beginning we have: > > 1---2---3---4---5 <--- master <--- HEAD > > HEAD contents is "ref: refs/heads/master" > > 1. Now, "git checkout 3...", which is equivalent to "git checkout 3", > detaches HEAD because commit '3' is not a head (is not a branch), so > we have: > > 1---2---3---4---5 <--- master > ^ > \ > \-------------- HEAD > > HEAD contents is "<sha1 of 3>" > > > 2. If we did "git reset --hard 3" we would rewind the history, > resulting in the following situation: > > 1---2---3 <--- master <--- HEAD > \ > \-4---5 <... master@{1}, ORIG_HEAD, HEAD@{1} > > and now commits 4 and 5 are referenced only by reflogs, and by the > (temporary) "last position of HEAD" reference named ORIG_HEAD. > > > 3. Now, if you have published 1..5 history you would not want > (usually) to rewind published branch. If you do the following: > > $ git revert --no-commit 5 > $ git revert 4 > > you would get the following: > > 1---2---3---4---5---(5^-1 4^-1 => 3) <--- master <--- HEAD > > git-revert applies reversal of changes in given commit, in the > "patch -R" ("patch --reverse") sense. Using '--no-commit' option > allows to squash reverting two commits into one commit. The ordering > of reverting ensures that there are no merge conflicts. > > > 4. Or you can just put the _contents_ of revision 3 into your working > tree, either using plumbing command git-read-tree, or by checking out > or resetting to top tree: "git checkout 3^{tree}", or > "git checkout 3 -- .", or equivalent git-reset invocation. > > This way you would get exactly > > 1---2---3---4---5---3 <--- master <--- HEAD > > but the relation of 5---3 parentage is unclear: you would have to > explain it in the commit mesage. [Great explanation. Let me offer one minor clarification:] This way you would get exactly: 1---2---3---4---5---3' <--- master <--- HEAD While the 3' commit has the same contents as 3, it is a new, distinct commit with its own history. Its commit message should explain why you want to go from 5 back to the contents of 3. -chris -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html