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Ishan Jarwal
Ishan Jarwal

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Git Rebase vs Reset vs Revert | When to use What ?

#devops #git

The Scenario: "Oops, I Made a Messy Commit History"

Imagine you're working on a feature branch called feature/login-page. You’ve made a few commits, but now :

  1. One of the commits has a bug.
  2. Another commit has a wrong commit message.
  3. Your commit history looks like a jumbled mess compared to main.

Time to clean it up! But… should you rebase, reset, or revert?

 

First, Let’s Understand the Core Idea of Each:

 

Command What it Does Safe for Shared Branches?
rebase Rewrites commit history to make it linear and clean No, unless used carefully
reset Moves the HEAD and branch pointer to a different commit No, dangerous on shared branches
revert Creates a new commit that undoes a previous commit Yes, safe to fix public history

 

1. Git Rebase : "Let’s Rewrite History Neatly"

What is it?

git rebase allows you to move or "replay" your commits onto another branch or rearrange them to make a clean, linear history.

When to Use?

  • You want to clean up messy commit history before merging.
  • You want to squash commits.
  • You want to change commit messages.

Example:

You have these commits in feature/login-page:

A — B — C — D  (feature/login-page)         
        ↑       
      Buggy commit (C)
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You want to fix commit C and clean up the message in D.

Solution: Interactive Rebase 

git rebase -i HEAD~3
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You’ll see something like this:

pick abc123 B pick def456 C pick ghi789 D
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You can now:

  • Change "pick" to "edit" for C to fix the bug.
  • Change "pick" to "reword" for D to fix the commit message.
  • Squash commits if needed.

Important:

  • This rewrites commit hashes.
  • If your branch is pushed and shared, rebasing can mess up others' history. Use with care!

 

2. Git Reset : "Let’s Go Back in Time (Dangerously Powerful)"

What is it?

git reset moves your branch pointer (HEAD) to a previous commit. It can unstage files, remove commits, or even delete code changes.

 

Types of Reset:

Command What happens?
git reset --soft Keeps your changes staged.
git reset --mixed Unstages changes but keeps them in the working directory.
git reset --hard Deletes your changes completely. Dangerous!

 

When to Use?

  • You made local commits you don’t want anymore.
  • You want to uncommit but keep the changes.

 

Example:

You made two useless commits on top of main and want to remove them.

A — B — C — D  (main)              
            ↑            
            Your branch (HEAD)
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To undo D and C:

git reset --soft HEAD~2
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  • Your changes are still there but unstaged (due to --soft flag).
  • If you want to kill the changes, do 
git reset --hard HEAD~2
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After that your git timeline will look like this :

A — B  (main)
    ↑            
    Your branch (HEAD)
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Important:

  • Never reset a branch that is already pushed and shared with others.
  • Resetting can permanently lose work (especially --hard).

 

3. Git Revert : "The Safe Undo Button"

What is it?

git revert creates a new commit that undoes the changes of a previous commit. It preserves history.

When to Use?

  • You want to undo a bad commit in a shared branch.
  • You want to keep history intact but fix a mistake.

 

Example:

Commit C introduced a bug. But you’ve already pushed it to origin/main.

A — B — C — D  (main)           
             ↑            
            Bug lives here
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You can revert C safely:

git revert <commit-hash-of-C>
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Git will create a new commit :

A — B — C — D — E  (main)                    
                ↑                 
              "Revert C"
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Important:

  • Safe for shared/public branches.
  • Doesn’t remove the commit but inverts its changes.

 

Quick Summary: When to Use What?

Command Use When…
git rebase You want to rewrite and clean history (local-only).
git reset You want to remove commits or unstage changes locally.
git revert You need to undo commits safely in shared branches.

Visual Cheat Sheet

"I messed up a commit and want to fix it before pushing" → Rebase / Reset (local only)
"I pushed a bad commit, now I need to undo it on remote" → Revert
"I made several ugly small commits, want to squash them" → Rebase -i

Final Tips

  • Never rebase or reset public history unless you know what you’re doing.
  • Use git log --oneline --graph to visualize the history before making changes.
  • Always backup your branch with git branch backup/my-branch before risky operations.

Further Reading

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