I did some changes on my git repo and did some commits. Here is what I want to do, say my git history looks as HEAD --> c1 --> c2 --> c3 --> c4. Questions 1) Now if I revert c1, does it revert all c2, c3, c4 as well ? My understanding it reverts only c1 and leave c2, c3, c4 as is. 2) Now I want to revert all c1, c2, c3 and c4 and move back to HEAD. What is the best way to do this.
Revert will create a commit that will undo the changes of the revision you want to revert.
So if you do:
git revert c1
You will end with:
revertC1 -> (previous HEAD) -> c1 -> c2 -> c3 -> c4 ...
And It will only revert that commit changes.
So, for your scenario where you want to remove four commits previos to the HEAD:
HEAD -> c1 -> c2 -> c3 -> c4
which is the same as:
HEAD -> HEAD~1 -> HEAD~2 -> HEAD~3 -> HEAD~4
If you want to remove the four commits before the current one. you can do
git revert HEAD~5..HEAD~1
You will be prompted to create the commit messages for each revert, and perhaps to solve conflicts.
In case you HAVE NOT PUSHED your changes, what I would do to keep the history log clean would be:
Undo the current commit and keep the code changes
git reset --soft HEAD~1
Store the code changes
git stash
Undo the last four commits and erase code changes
git reset --hard HEAD~4
Make sure I delete any created files and directories
git clean -di
Re apply the changes from the top commit which is the one I wanted to keep
git stash pop
*Fix conflicts in case there will be When there are no conflicts. Commit my changes
git commit -am "My new changes"
If ready to push, push.
git push
This, only if you HAVEN'T PUSHED your changes.