Undo & History

How to Discard All Local Changes in Git

Discard all unstaged and uncommitted file modifications and restore your working tree to the latest commit.

Instant 1-Line Solution

Destructive (Data Loss Risk)Beginner

git restore .

When to use this scenario:You experimented with code that didn't work out and want to cleanly discard all changes since your last commit.

Step-by-Step Execution Guide

1Discard unstaged changes in all tracked files

git restore .

Reverts all modified tracked files in the current repository back to their clean commit state.

2Discard staged files

git restore --staged .

Unstages all files added with "git add .", restoring them to unstaged modified status.

3Remove untracked files and directories

git clean -fd

Deletes any new untracked files (-f) and untracked directories (-d) created during your experiments.

•"git restore ." and "git clean -fd" cannot be undone! Once discarded, unstaged work is permanently erased.
•Consider running "git stash" instead if you might need these experiments later.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about safe rollback, remote history implications, and troubleshooting.

Git 2.23+ introduced "git restore .", which is the recommended, safer syntax for discarding working tree modifications.

Undo your most recent Git commit while keeping all your edited files staged or unstaged in your working directory.

Rename your current local branch and update the upstream remote tracking branch on GitHub or GitLab.

Delete a branch from remote origin (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket) after a pull request has been merged.

Amend the commit message of your latest commit before or after pushing.

Remove files from the Git staging area (index) without losing any of your local changes.

Temporarily shelve both modified and newly created untracked files to switch branches with a clean working copy.