How can I use Git to add new commits to the current branch based on a previous commit in that same branch?

Question

Let's say I have 2 commits in my git log. Now I want to go back to the first commit and modify some files and add that as the third commit. When I type in git log I want 3 commits to be there on the same branch. git reset --soft firstcommit and then commiting again wipes my second commit. How do I achieve what I want?

Answer 1

Suppose you are now at thirdcommit.

You can use git cherry-pick secondcommit to get it back.

And the log will be

firstcommit -> thirdcommit -> secondcommit

If you want the log to be like:

firstcommit -> secondcommit -> thridcommit

you can do :

git reset --hard secondcommit
git cherry-pick thridcommit