I looked all over and couldn't find a solution to what I'm trying to do. Maybe I just missed it.
Say I have:
Commit A:
- file 1
- file 2
- file 3
Commit B:
- file 4
Commit C:
- file 5
- file 6
HEAD: has files 1-6.
Is there a way to interactively go back to Commit A to uncommit file 2 and file 3, then replay the remaining commits? So that I'm left with
Commit A:
- file 1
Commit B:
- file 4
Commit C:
- file 5
- file 6
HEAD: has files 1-6, with file2 and file3 as unstaged.
Incomplete solutions I found:
- git reset --soft <commit A>
- make changes
- git commit
but this leaves me without the remaining commits (B, C).
- git rebase -i HEAD~n
- edit <commit>
- make changes
- git commit --amend
- git rebase --continue
but changes here are on top of the committed files at that commit, and I don't want to undo the file changes, just uncommit/unstage them.
- git revert -n <commit>
but this undoes the changes.
- git rebase drop <commit>
but this drops the entire commit.
I'm looking for the playback/--continue of rebase, but the editability of a soft reset. Is there a way to do that?
Thanks
I would recommend:
git rm -- file_2 file_3
git commit
This creates a new commit that removes the two files. History is not altered.
To recover the two files in your working tree:
git checkout HEAD^ -- file_2 file_3
git reset HEAD -- file_2 file_3
git checkout recovers the files and git reset removes them from the staging areas so that you won't commit them.
Alternatively, if you have not pushed these commits to a shared repository yet, and wish to change history, use git rebase -i
git rebase -i HEAD~n #n should be one more than the number of commits to change
#mark commit A to edit
git reset -- file_2 file_3 # remove file_2 and file_3 from staging so they won't be committed
git commit --amend
git rebase --continue
I believe this will leave file_1 and file_2 in your working tree. If not, they can be recovered from your pre-rebase commit using git checkout as above.